House Hearing, 110TH Congress - Research, Education and Training Programs To Facilitate Adoption of Solar Energy Technologies

RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND TRAINING
PROGRAMS TO FACILITATE ADOPTION

OF SOLAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND

ENVIRONMENT
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
JUNE 19, 2007
Serial No. 11041

Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology
(
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2007
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COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

HON. BART GORDON, Tennessee, Chairman
JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois
RALPH M. HALL, Texas
EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER JR.,
LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California
Wisconsin
MARK UDALL, Colorado
LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas
DAVID WU, Oregon
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
BRIAN BAIRD, Washington
KEN CALVERT, California
BRAD MILLER, North Carolina
ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland
DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois
VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan
NICK LAMPSON, Texas
FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona
JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois
JERRY MCNERNEY, California
W. TODD AKIN, Missouri
PAUL KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
JO BONNER, Alabama
DARLENE HOOLEY, Oregon
TOM FEENEY, Florida
STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey
RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas
MICHAEL M. HONDA, California
BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
JIM MATHESON, Utah
DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington
MIKE ROSS, Arkansas
MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
PHIL GINGREY, Georgia
CHARLIE MELANCON, Louisiana
BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California
BARON P. HILL, Indiana
ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska
HARRY E. MITCHELL, Arizona
VACANCY
CHARLES A. WILSON, Ohio
SUBCOMMITTEE
ON
ENERGY
AND
ENVIRONMENT
HON. NICK LAMPSON, Texas, Chairman

JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois
BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California
ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland
DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois
JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona
W. TODD AKIN, Missouri
JERRY MCNERNEY, California
RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas
MARK UDALL, Colorado
MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas
BRIAN BAIRD, Washington
MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida
PAUL KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
BART GORDON, Tennessee
RALPH M. HALL, Texas
JEAN FRUCI Democratic Staff Director
CHRIS KING Democratic Professional Staff Member
SHIMERE WILLIAMS Democratic Professional Staff Member
ELAINE PAULIONIS Democratic Professional Staff Member
ADAM ROSENBERG Democratic Professional Staff Member
ELIZABETH STACK Republican Professional Staff Member
STACEY STEEP Research Assistant
(II)
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CONTENTS
June 19, 2007
Page
Witness List .............................................................................................................

Hearing Charter ......................................................................................................
2
3
Opening Statements
Prepared Statement by Representative Nick Lampson, Chairman, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ...............................................................
Statement by Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Vice Chair, Subcommittee
on Energy and Environment, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S.
House of Representatives ....................................................................................
Written Statement ............................................................................................
Statement by Representative Bob Inglis, Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ...............................................................
Prepared Statement by Representative Jerry F. Costello, Member, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ...............................................................
8
5
6
7
7
8
Witnesses:
Mr. Herbert T. Hayden, Solar Technology Coordinator, Arizona Public Service
Company, Phoenix, Arizona
Oral Statement .................................................................................................
Biography ..........................................................................................................
Mr. Rhone Resch, President, Solar Energy Industries Association
Oral Statement .................................................................................................
Biography ..........................................................................................................
Ms. Jane M. Weissman, Executive Director, Interstate Renewable Energy
Council; Vice Chair, North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners
Oral Statement .................................................................................................
Biography ..........................................................................................................
Mr. Joseph T. Sarubbi, Professor/Department Chair, Building Systems Technology Department, Hudson Valley Community College
Oral Statement .................................................................................................
Biography ..........................................................................................................
Dr. Daniel E. Arvizu, Director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S.
Department of Energy
Oral Statement .................................................................................................
Discussion
Solar Energy in Germany ....................................................................................
Solar Check-off Program ......................................................................................
Comparison of Solar Energy to ANWR ..............................................................
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11
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25
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51
(III)
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Page
More on Solar Check-off Program .......................................................................

Manufacturing Cost for Solar Energy ................................................................
Tax Incentives for Solar Energy .........................................................................
Tax Incentives and Net Metering of Solar Energy ............................................
Storage and Efficiency of Solar Energy ..............................................................
Characterization of Support for Solar Energy ...................................................
Comparison of Centralized to Distributed Solar Energy ..................................
Net Metering ........................................................................................................
Reliability of Solar Energy ..................................................................................
Solar Workforce Training Program ....................................................................
More on Solar Workforce Training .....................................................................
Efficiency of Solar Energy ...................................................................................
Storage for Solar Energy .....................................................................................
Conversion to Hydrogen ......................................................................................
More on Storage for Solar ...................................................................................
Water Use for Concentrating Solar Power .........................................................
Concentrating Solar Power ..................................................................................
More on Solar Workforce Training .....................................................................
52
53
54
55
55
56
57
58
58
59
59
61
63
64
65
65
67
68
69
70
71
72
Appendix 1: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions

Mr. Herbert T. Hayden, Solar Technology Coordinator, Arizona Public Service
Company, Phoenix, Arizona ................................................................................
Mr. Rhone Resch, President, Solar Energy Industries Association .....................
Ms. Jane M. Weissman, Executive Director, Interstate Renewable Energy
Council; Vice Chair, North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners ...................................................................................................................
Mr. Joseph T. Sarubbi, Professor/Department Chair, Building Systems Technology Department, Hudson Valley Community College ..................................
Dr. Daniel E. Arvizu, Director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S.
Department of Energy .........................................................................................
76
80
83
85
88
Appendix 2: Additional Material for the Record

Discussion Draft, June 14, 2007 .............................................................................
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RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAMS TO FACILITATE ADOPTION OF

SOLAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2007
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT,
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in Room
2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Gabrielle Giffords
[Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee] presiding.
(1)
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HEARING CHARTER
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Research, Education and Training

Programs to Facilitate Adoption
of Solar Energy Technologies
TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2007
10:00 A.M.12:00 P.M.
2318 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
Purpose
On Tuesday, June 19, 2007 the House Committee on Science & Technology, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment will hold a hearing to receive testimony on
the Discussion Draft sponsored by Rep. Giffords which establishes several important
research, education, and training programs to facilitate the adoption of solar energy
technologies.
This bill addresses issues in solar research, education, and training not covered
by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. These include a research and development program on thermal energy storage technologies for concentrating solar power, a study
to determine the necessary steps to integrate concentrating solar power plants with
the regional and national electric grid, a program to ensure that a sufficient number
of people are properly trained to install and maintain solar energy equipment, and
the establishment of a solar energy research and information program, modeled on
similar such programs for the beef and dairy industries. The program is supported
by pooling funds from the private sector for the research and promotion of the solar
power industry as a whole.
This hearing will seek to address the following issues relating to the discussion
Draft:
Is thermal energy storage technology important to the viability of concentrating solar power? Would the increased research and development on thermal storage proposed significantly accelerate the advancement of this technology?
Would a study on how to integrate concentrating solar power plants with the
regional and national electric grid be useful?
Is there a sufficient number of people trained to install and maintain solar
energy equipment to meet the current and future needs of the solar industry?
Are such programs necessary or useful for prospective solar panel installers
and potential consumers?
How would the solar research and information program for the solar industry
authorized in the bill help to support research and promote the adoption of
solar power across the Nation?
Background
The Discussion Draft contains 4 basic components, as described above. The first
two are specifically related to concentrating solar power (CSP). A 2006 report by the
Western Governors Association assessed the overall near-term potential for CSP capacity in the American Southwest, taking into account areas of high solar ray intensity, near-level land, non-sensitivity to CSP use, and proximity to transmission. The
resulting set of potential plant sites totaled 200 GW of potential power production.
To put this in perspective, the electric generating capacity of the entire United
States is currently about 1,000 GW. Some significant challenges remain to widespread implementation of CSP, however.
CSP plants produce electric power by converting the suns energy into high-temperature heat using various mirror configurations. The heat is then channeled
through a conventional generator. These plants consist of two parts: one that collects solar energy and converts it to heat, and another that converts heat energy
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to electricity. Thermal energy storage technology allows this heat to be retained for
later use in generating electricity, such as during periods of passing clouds or into
the evening. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 establishes a CSP research and development program, but storage is not included in the language. Section 3 of the Discussion Draft authorizes a program dedicated to advancing research and development
in thermal energy storage for CSP. Section 4 of the Discussion Draft tasks the Department of Energy (DOE) with conducting a study on methods to integrate concentrating solar power with regional electricity transmission systems, and to identify
new transmission or transmission upgrades needed to bring electricity from high
concentrating solar power resource areas to growing electric power load centers
throughout the United States. The results of this study will help define a roadmap
for large-scale implementation of CSP to meet the Nations growing energy needs.
The other two components of Discussion Draft address the solar industry in general. Having a certified, well-trained workforce to install and maintain solar energy
products is critical to the success of the industry. Some states, such as New York
and Florida, working with local community colleges, businesses, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), and the North American Board of Certified Energy
Practitioners (NABCEP) have recently established successful programs to create a
workforce to meet local demand, however there is currently no federal program to
help establish or improve these training programs across the Nation. Section 5 creates such a program, authorizing $10 million in each year from FY08 through FY12.
This section instructs DOE to ensure sufficient geographic distribution of training
programs nationally, and to only award grants for programs certified by the Institute of Sustainable Power or equivalent industry-accepted quality-control certification institution, or for new and growing programs with a credible path to certification.
A successful model for promoting a particular U.S. commodity, rather than an individual brand, has been demonstrated by the agriculture industry. Funded entirely
by a small portion of industry revenues and overseen by the USDA, organizations
such as the Cattlemens Beef Promotion and Research Board and the National Dairy
Board were created to coordinate mutually beneficial research efforts and increase
awareness of their industry as a whole, as well as ensure that consumers knew the
proper certification standards to seek out before making a purchase. Modeled after
these examples, Sections 613 create the Solar Industries Research and Promotion
Board, overseen by DOE, which would similarly plan and conduct mutually beneficial solar industry research efforts, increase awareness of solar as an energy option
across the Nation, and ensure that consumers know what certifications a technician
should have for installation or maintenance of solar energy equipment. The Solar
Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has expressed a strong interest in creating
such a program.
Witnesses
Mr. Herbert Hayden is the Arizona Public Service (APS) Solar Technology
Coordinator. Mr. Hayden will testify on how thermal storage research and development and the bills proposed studies on grid integration and water usage
will help advance the implementation of concentrating solar power.
Mr. Rhone Resch is the President of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). Mr. Resch will testify on how the proposed research and information for the solar industry would help to support research and promote the
adoption of solar power across the Nation.
Ms. Jane Weissman is the Executive Director of the Interstate Renewable
Energy Council (IREC), and the Vice-Chair of the North American Board of
Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP). Ms. Weissman will testify on the
current status of workforce training in solar installation and maintenance
across the country, and the need for a national solar workforce training program.
Prof. Joseph Sarubbi is the Chair of the Building Systems Technology Department at Hudson Valley Community College. Prof. Sarubbi will testify on
his ground-level experience in creating a solar workforce training program, including his partnership with local businesses and the State of New York in
developing a successful curriculum.
Dr. David Arvizu is the Director of the Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Arvizu will testify on the DOEs current
solar research and development activities, and on his views regarding the proposed legislation.
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Ms. GIFFORDS. Welcome to todays hearing entitled Research,
Education and Training Programs to Facilitate Adoption of Solar
Energy Technologies. I want to thank Chairman Gordon, Ranking
Member Hall, Chairman Lampson and Ranking Member Inglis for
holding this hearing on solar energy this morning. Solar energy offers one of the best solutions to the greatest challenges facing our
nation, global warming, dependence on foreign oil and concerns
about American competitiveness.
It has tremendous potential across the United States, especially
in regions like Southern Arizona, where we have over 300 days of
sunshine every single year.
Solar energy, as we all know, is a nonpartisan issue. The sun
beats down on Republicans and Democrats and Independents with
equal intensity, and we could all benefit from harnessing the power
of the sun. It stimulates business development. It creates new jobs,
helps protect our environment, and promotes energy independence.
My legislation, entitled the Solar Energy Research and Advancement Act of 2007, will move solar energy forward by targeting some
of the gaps that several experts have identified in our national
solar energy strategy.
Today we are going to hear from experts on the discussion draft
that was earlier circulated. This is a great first step in the overall
solar energy agenda for the 110th Congress. I am considering other
pieces of legislation and I know that other House committees are
looking at solar-related bills as well. As we move forward, the cumulative efforts to focus on the use of solar energy should be very
positive.
Let me briefly summarize the four components of this bill. The
first component would establish a Thermal Energy Storage Research and Development Program within the Department of Energy. This will help us solve perhaps the most significant problem
with concentrated solar power technology: energy storage. We need
more advanced technology so that we can store solar energy produced during the day and use it at night or on a cloudy day. This
is all about energy reliability and viability. We need to assure the
public that they will have enough electricity when the sun goes
down and when they need it.
The second component would require DOE to conduct two concentrating solar power commercial application studies. One would
study methods to integrate concentrated solar power energy into
regional electricity transmission systems. The best time of the day
to produce and use solar energy is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. We need
to research how to connect the major solar power plants to the electric grid, relieve expensive demand on electric utilities and use
solar energy during these peak hours. It also makes sense to examine how to bring electricity from high solar resource areas like Arizona and Nevada to other parts of the United States that have
other energy needs as well.
The other study would require DOE to inform Congress on methods to reduce the amount of water consumed by concentrating solar
power systems. CSP has its greatest potential in the southwest
United States, and like all power plants, it requires tremendous
use of water. Given the strain on water resources already in this
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region, we must research ways to research water consumption so
that we can realize the benefits of CSP technology.
The third component of the legislation will authorize a competitive grant program at DOE to create and strengthen solar industry
workforce training and internship programs in installation, operation and maintenance of solar energy products. The goal of this
program is to ensure an adequate supply of well-trained individuals to support the expansion of the solar energy industry. If we
want to increase our use of solar energy, we have to make sure
that we have a trained and qualified workforce. This section will
promote job growth in a fast-growing solar industry.
Lastly, we have got beef for dinner and we have all got milk, but
who has gone solar? The fourth component of this bill will create
a Solar Energy Industries Research and Commercial Application
Board to plan and coordinate projects of research and commercial
application, certification, information and other purposes of benefit
to the application of solar technologies and educate people on why
we need to be doing this. This public-private partnership will also
help the general public understand how they can benefit from solar
energy technology. I want to note that this program will be paid
for by the solar industry and will cost the taxpayer absolutely nothing. It is important to my constituents and all the other peoples
constituents as well.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the
aisle to pass this important legislation.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Giffords follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
REPRESENTATIVE GABRIELLE GIFFORDS
I want to thank Chairman Gordon, Ranking Member Hall, Chairman Lampson,

and Ranking Member Inglis for holding this hearing on solar energy today.
Solar energy offers one of the best solutions to the greatest challenges facing our
nationglobal warming, dependence on foreign oil, and concerns about American
competitiveness.
It has tremendous potential across the United States, especially in regions like
Southern Arizona, where we have over 300 days of sunshine every year.
Solar energy is a non-partisan issue. The sun beats down on Democrats, Republicans, and Independents with equal intensity, and we can all benefit from harnessing the power of the sun.
It stimulates business development, creates new jobs, helps protect our environment, and promotes energy independence.
My legislation, entitled the Solar Energy Research and Advancement Act of 2007,
will move solar energy forward by targeting some of the gaps that several experts
have identified in our national solar energy strategy.
Today, we will hear expert opinions on the discussion draft that was circulated.
This is a great first step in the overall solar energy agenda for the 110th Congress. I am considering other pieces of legislation, and I know that other House committees are looking at solar-related bills. As we move forward, the cumulative efforts to advance the use of solar energy should be very positive.
Let me briefly summarize the four components of this bill.
The first component would establish a Thermal Energy Storage Research and
Development Program within the Department of Energy. This will help us solve
perhaps the most significant problem with concentrating solar power technology: energy storage. We need more advanced technology so that we can store solar energy
produced during the day and use it at night or on a cloudy day. This is all about
energy reliability and viability. We need to assure the public that they will have
enough electricity when the sun goes down.
The second component would require DOE to conduct two Concentrating Solar
Power Commercial Application Studies.
One would study methods to integrate concentrating solar power energy into regional electricity transmission systems. The best time of the day to produce and use
solar energy is from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. We need to research how to connect major solar
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power plants to the electric grid, relieve expensive demand on electric utilities, and
use solar energy during these peak hours. It also makes sense to examine how to
bring electricity from high solar resource areas, like Arizona and Nevada, to meet
energy needs throughout the United States.
The other study would require DOE to inform Congress on methods to reduce the
amount of water consumed by concentrating solar power systems. CSP has its greatest potential in the Southwest United States, and like all power plants, it requires
the use of water. Given the strain on water resources in this region, we must research ways to reduce water consumption so that we can realize the benefits of CSP
technology.
The third component of this legislation will authorize a competitive grant program
at DOE to create and strengthen solar industry workforce training and internship
programs in installation, operation, and maintenance of solar energy products. The
goal of this program is to ensure an adequate supply of well-trained individuals to
support the expansion of the solar energy industry. If we want to increase our use
of solar energy, we have got to make sure that we have a trained, qualified workforce. This section will promote job growth in the fast-growing solar industry.
Lastly, weve got beef for dinner, and weve all got milk. But whos gone solar?
The fourth component of this bill will create a Solar Energy Industries Research and
Commercial Application Board to plan and coordinate projects of research, commercial application, certification, information, and other purposes of benefit to the application of solar technologies. This public-private partnership will also help the general public understand how they can benefit from solar energy technology. I want
to note that this program will be paid for by the solar industry and will cost the
taxpayer absolutely nothing.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass
this important legislation.
Ms. GIFFORDS. The Chair now recognizes the Ranking Member

from South Carolina, Mr. Inglis, for an opening statement.
Mr. INGLIS. I thank the Chair for holding this legislative hearing
on facilitating the adoption of solar energy technologies.
Solar energy occupies just a sliver of the global energy market.
However, when you consider the Earth receives more energy from
the sun in just one hour than the world uses in a whole year, it
makes sense that we should look into making that thin sliver into
a big piece of the energy pie. With some advancements in technology and conversion efficiencies, solar will fit the bill for our energy goals: clean, renewable and abundant.
Today we are going to discuss draft legislation that seeks to address ways that the Federal Government can help speed commercial viability of solar energy. I look forward to hearing from our expert panel of witnesses as to how we might meet our goals.
Madam Chairman, as we discuss these proposals today and move
to markup, I hope we give adequate time to make this bill as good
as it can be. Americas scientists, engineers, inventors and entrepreneurs realize the potential of solar power and other renewable
sources, and I hope we can set policies that facilitate the development, the best development of those sources.
Thank you again for holding the hearing and I look forward to
hearing from our witnesses.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Inglis follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
REPRESENTATIVE BOB INGLIS
Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this legislative hearing on
facilitating the adoption of solar energy technologies.
Solar energy occupies just a sliver of the global energy market. However, when
you consider that the Earth receives more energy from the sun in just one hour than
the world uses in a whole year, it makes sense that we should look into making
that thin sliver into a big piece of the energy pie. With some advancements in technology and conversion efficiencies, solar will fit the bill for our energy goals: clean,
renewable, and abundant.
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Today, were going to discuss draft legislation that seeks to address ways that the
Federal Government can help speed commercial viability of solar energy. I look forward to hearing from our expert panel of witnesses as to how we might meet our
goals.
Mr. Chairman, as we discuss this proposal today, and move to markup, I hope
we give adequate time to make the bill as good as it can be. Americas scientists,
engineers, inventors, and entrepreneurs realize the potential of solar power and
other renewable sources, and I hope we can set policies that facilitate the development of these sources.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Inglis.

If there are Members who wish to submit additional opening
statements, your statements will be added to the record at this
point.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Lampson follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
CHAIRMAN NICK LAMPSON
I am very pleased to be here this morning to discuss the legislation proposed by

my colleague from Arizona, Rep. Giffords. Solar energy holds great promise and potential to deliver clean, affordable electricity to homes and businesses across the Nation.
Rep. Giffords has identified several areas where federal support could further the
goal of diversifying our energy supply by expanding the adoption of solar energy
technologies. The basic and applied research and development programs that we
have invested in through the Department of Energy over the years have yielded significant advancements in solar energy technologies. Our challenge now is to move
these technologies into the market place more aggressively.
I also serve on the Committee on Agriculture. In the agricultural sector, USDA
has managed numerous promotion programs for agricultural commodities that have
helped to educate consumers about the nutritional benefits of different foods and
have expanded markets for all commodity producers. I believe it provides a good
model for solar energy technologies and will deliver additional applied research and
information designed to communicate with the general public to support the entire
solar industry.
My home State of Texas has moved aggressively to encourage the development
of renewable energy. We have abundant solar resources that could be used to further expand our renewable energy portfolio. As several of our witnesses will point
out today, the U.S. has significant solar potential that we are not yet taking full
advantage of. We can no longer afford to overlook obvious opportunities to diversify
our energy supply.
I commend my colleague for her work on this legislation and I look forward to
moving it forward in our committee very soon. We have an excellent panel of witnesses today that will help us to refine this legislation and expand our use of the
abundant, clean source of energy.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Costello follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
REPRESENTATIVE JERRY F. COSTELLO
Good Morning. Thank you Mr. Chairman for holding todays hearing to receive
testimony on the discussion draft legislation sponsored by Congresswoman Giffords.
The bill establishes research, education, and training programs to facilitate the
adoption of solar energy technologies.
My home State of Illinois has a plentiful supply of coal, which is why our region
specializes in clean coal research and demonstration projects. In the West, solar energy and thermal energy storage is also an environmentally friendly energy source.
Regardless of where you live in the country, I believe it is important to invest in
multiple energy sources to ensure the U.S. has diverse a energy portfolio.
Specifically, the Discussion Draft with regard to thermal energy storage addresses
an important issue related to solar energy and its impact on utilities. Adding thermal storage to concentrated solar power (CSP) plants enables solar energy to be a
potentially provided at a low cost, which is critical for our nations economy. Further, the discussion draft also addresses transmission integration, an important
issue for CSP plants.
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Similar to clean coal technologies, cost is the greatest obstacle with regard to producing solar power. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how the solar
research and information program for the solar industry authorized in the bill would
help to support research and promote the adoption of solar power across the Nation.
With that, I again thank the Chairman for calling this hearing.
Ms. GIFFORDS. At this time I would like to introduce our fabulous, fabulous panel of witnesses with some Arizona connections, I
would also like to point out. I always bring it back to Arizona. We
have Mr. Hayden, who is Solar Technology Coordinator for Arizona
Public Service Corporation. Mr. Rhone Resch is the President of
the Solar Energy Industries Association. Ms. Jane Weissman is the
Executive Director of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council and
the Vice-Chair of the North American Board of Certified Energy
Practitioners. I just have to mention that Ms. Weissman earlier has
talked about 1991 at the Westford Look Hotel in Tucson where a
lot of this work actually began, so I think that is pretty interesting.
We also have Professor Joseph Sarubbi, who is the Chair of the
Building Systems Technology Department at Hudson Valley Community College, and Mr. Daniel Arvizu, who is the Director of the
Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory
and originally from Douglas, Arizona. So that is very cool.
So as our witnesses should know, spoken testimony, we would
like to try to limit to five minutes after which the Members of the
Committee will have five minutes to ask questions, and as far as
I know, we are okay on time in terms of votes, so no particular
pressure here to speed through this. But let us get going with Mr.
Hayden, please.
STATEMENT OF MR. HERBERT T. HAYDEN, SOLAR TECHNOLOGY COORDINATOR, ARIZONA PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Mr. HAYDEN. Madam Chairman and Members of the Committee,

my name is Herbert T. Hayden. I am the solar technology coordinator for Arizona Public Service Company, APS, in Arizona. Thank
you for the opportunity to testify to you today regarding concentrating solar power, or CSP. CSP is a technology of great interest
to APS for its potential to provide lower cost and more-reliable
solar power in the desert Southwest.
I would like to submit my written comments to you and briefly
summarize them now on the main points, which are, number one,
the importance of thermal energy storage to the viability of concentrating solar power; number two, the importance of reduction of
water use to the viability of concentrating solar; and number three,
how a study to integrate concentrating solar power plants with the
electric grid can facilitate the commercialization and implementation of large-scale CSP.
APS is the largest and longest serving electric power utility in
Arizona, the fastest growing state in the Nation. We are adding
customers at three times the national average and electricity demand is growing at four times the national average. To meet this
rapid growth in electricity demand, Arizonas electric utilities are
investing over $2 billion a year in infrastructure. Plans for the future include conventional generation, new transmission and distribution, and an increased focus on conservation and cost-effective
renewable energy resources.
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In Arizona, our most abundant renewable resource is sunshine.
For the past 15 years, my responsibility has been to work with the
solar industry and researchers around the United States and the
world to bring lower cost and reliable solar electricity to our customers. From a technology perspective, our primary focus has been
on technologies that can be lower cost on a utility scale in the nearterm. As early as 1995, the APS STAR Center was a test site for
dish Stirling systems and for the advancement of concentrating PV
systems, both of which are forms of concentrating solar power.
Based on inquiries from companies around the world, it seems
clear that our work has helped stimulate the growing interest in
concentrating solar power technology.
One of the most successful CSP technologies to date are the solar
trough systems that use solar heat to drive turbine engines and
generators. For more than a decade, solar trough plants in California have been the largest collection of solar power in the world
and they have operated well. CSP is currently the most cost-effective solar technology for large-scale use and has the potential to
compete with conventional generation in the near- to mid-term.
Because of this potential, last year APS completed the first solar
trough plant in the United States in over 14 years, the one-megawatt APS Saguaro Solar Trough plant near Tucson, Arizona. Our
intent of that project was to help reestablish and again advance the
U.S. solar trough technology. In short order, the APS plant was followed by a much larger project in Nevada which has benefited from
the new solar collector design experience gained in the APS project.
An important attribute of the CSP systems is the ability to incorporate thermal storage into the design to improve the reliability of
power output. This is an extremely important feature that many
intermittent renewable resources such as PV and wind do not have.
All renewables have value for the ability to help reduce the use of
fossil fuels but the ability to store the thermal energy for times
when it is needed provides for a reliability that does not exist with
intermittent resources. This is especially critical to utilities because
they have the obligation to provide reliable power at all times. It
is commonly considered that solar provides power when it is needed the most, during the daytime. This is largely true but there are
fluctuations due to clouds and a rolloff of solar before the late day
hours of high power consumption. For example, power consumption
in Arizona reaches a peak in the months of July, August and September and the summer heat results in heavy air conditioning
loads. During that period, Arizonans use the most energy between
5 and 7 p.m. when they go home, increase the air conditioning and
do things for their lives. But unfortunately, the solar resource
peaks sometime in the mid-afternoon and tails off significantly as
the sun lowers on the horizon. Thermal storage has the potential
to bridge the gap between maximum solar generation and peak
customer demand by extending the hours of operation sufficiently
to cover much of the evening demand.
There has already been some support in the national labs for the
development of thermal storage concept and we recognize and appreciate that past support. However, the resources are apparently
limited in comparison to the substantial expense of a meaningful
development and test plant. Certainly a dedicated research and de-
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velopment program on thermal storage could significantly accelerate the use of this promising technology.
Another key area for improvement of CSP is water use. The current design of large CSP plants use water simply for cooling a
power plant in the same way that water is used for conventional
power plant cooling. Though CSP technology has been successful
with its current water cooling approaches, growth in the desert has
placed ever-increasing demands on water use and reductions in
water use would increase the attractiveness of CSP.
On the third topic relating to CSP of the study of integrating
large CSP plants into the regional and national electric grid, it is
true that planning for CSP does raise numerous issues including
the availability of land, land-use issues such as water and permitting, and increasingly, the availability of transmission facilities and
transmission capacity to deliver the energy to load centers from the
areas where solar might be developed. Transmission is generally
constrained in much of the West and significant new transmission
investment is needed in the coming years for all types of generation, renewable or conventional. The Southwestern states and utilities, including APS, are considering the needs and benefits for
transmission to ensure a robust grid to meet the needs of the
Wests rapidly growing population. A federal study of the potential
for the integration of CSP into the transmission plans would be
timely and supportive of the further commercial implementation of
CSP and could help address the same kind of issues that have been
encountered in the successful growth of the wind industry.
So finally, we are currently leading a group of southwestern utilities in the exploration of a 250-megawatt CSP plant to be built in
the Southwest. In the process, we have run into these issues
transmission, water, et cetera. Also, land on federal land could be
considered.
So finally, I would just say that we believe, APS believes that
large-scale CSP has very good potential to provide cost-effective energy to the United States. We also believe that the U.S. industries
have still been a leader in concentrating technologies and have the
opportunity to benefit by that, and finally that CSP can be improved with the additional of thermal storage and with reduction
of water use and the proper integration of CSP in the national grid.
Thank you, Madam Chairman and the Members of the Committee for the opportunity to share these observations with you,
and I would be available to answer questions if I can. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hayden follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
HERBERT T. HAYDEN
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, it is a pleasure to provide testimony

to you regarding 1) the importance of thermal energy storage technology to the viability of concentrating solar power, and 2) how a study to integrate concentrating
solar power plants with the electric grid can facilitate the commercialization and implementation of large-scale CSP.
Arizona Public Service Company (APS) is the largest and longest serving electric
power utility in Arizona. Arizona is also the fastest growing state in the United
States. APS is adding customers at three times the national average and our customers electricity demand is growing at four times the national average. To meet
this rapid growth in electricity demand Arizonas electric utilities are investing over
$2 billion a year in infrastructure. Plans for the future include conventional generation, new transmission and distribution and an increased focus on conservation and
cost effective renewable energy resources.
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In Arizona our most abundant renewable resource is sunshine. And, for the past
15 years, my responsibility has been to work with the solar industry and researchers around the U.S. and the world to bring lower cost and reliable solar electricity
to our customers.
APS first work in the solar technology area was .in 1954 when APS helped organize the first International Solar Energy Exposition in Phoenix, AZ that lead to the
formation of the International Solar Energy Society. In the 1970s, APS applied
early solar PV technology in remote off-grid telecommunications applications, and
since the early 1980s APS has been an active participant in the study and development of solar energy for large scale utility use.
In 1988, the APS Solar Technology Applied Research (STAR) center was developed to support the advancement of solar resources, including field operation of both
photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar technologies. Our early work at STAR
gave APS the expertise and experience to undertake several noteworthy projects including Arizonas first customer-sited PV systems tied to the grid, and Arizonas
first utility scale grid-tied solar PV system. APS is proud to provide solar services
to the National Park Service and several military bases in Arizona to assist with
the use of PV in support of remote off-grid operations. And, we currently have over
five MW of PV tracker power plants in operation providing reliable solar energy to
our customers.
From a technology development perspective our primary focus has been on large
scale solar technologies. As early as 1995, APS STAR center was a test site for the
dish Stirling systems, and the advancement of Concentrating PV (CPV) systems. We
have more then 10 years experience operating silicon CPV, and three years ago installed the Nations first grid-tied triple-junction high concentration PV system.
Based upon inquiries from companies around the world it seems clear that our CPV
work has helped stimulate new interest in CPV technology. And while there is significant CPV work now being undertaken in other countries, it is my belief that the
United States remains in the technological lead of this very promising solar technology.
In another very promising technology area, APS has supported the advancement
of concentrating solar power (CSP). These technologies are thermal electric systems that use solar heat to drive engines and generators. CSP thermal systems include solar trough concentrator systems and central receiver (power tower) systems
that use many mirrors to focus light on a central solar collector. CSP also include
solar dish Stirling systems and other advanced solar concepts.
The solar trough systems are worth particular note. For more then a decade solar
trough systems in California have been the largest collection of solar power in the
world, and they have operated well. CSP is also currently the most cost effective
solar technology and has the greatest potential to compete economically with conventional generation in the near to mid-term.
Because of this potential, just last year, APS constructed the first solar trough
plant in the U.S. in over 14 years. Our intent was to help to re-establish and again
advance the U.S. solar trough technology. The plant is the one MW APS Saguaro
Solar Trough plant, near Tucson, Arizona.
While not part of the Saguaro design, an important attribute of the solar thermal
CSP systems is the ability to incorporate thermal storage techniques into the design
to improve the reliability of power output. This is an extremely important feature
that many intermittent renewable resources such as PV and wind do not have.
While all renewables have value for their ability to help reduce the use of fossil
fuels, the ability to store the thermal energy for times when its needed provides a
level of reliability that does not exist with intermittent resources. This is especially
critical to utilities that have an obligation to provide reliable power at all times.
Common wisdom is that solar technologies produce power when it is needed the
most, during the daytime. While this is largely true, there are exceptions that are
not obvious such as fluctuations due to clouds and a mismatch to late-day power
consumption. This latter exception is the norm for Arizona and most of the desert
southwest. In the southwest, power consumption reaches its peak in the months of
July, August and September, when the summer heat result in heavy air conditioning loads. The correlation between power consumption and high summer temperatures are a good match for CSP however the correlation is not as perfect as one
might expect. In a 24 hour period, Arizonans use the most energy in the early
evening, between 5 and 7 p.m., when they return home from work, turn down the
air conditioning, cook dinner, do laundry and generally go about their lives. Unfortunately, solar electricity production, even from CSP, does not match this hourly demand profile very well. Solar electricity production reaches its peak levels sometime
in the mid-afternoon and tails off significantly in the early evening as the sun low-
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ers on the horizon. Thermal storage has the potential to bridge the gap between
maximum generation and peak demand.
Without the availability of solar energy during the peak, utilities must look to
other reliable resources like natural gas to meet customer demand. But, thermal
storage has the real potential to change utility resource decisions because with storage CSP systems will be able to reliably serve customers when electricity costs are
the highest.
There currently exists some support in the national labs for the development of
the thermal storage concept, which we recognize and appreciate. However the resources are apparently limited in comparison to the substantial expense of a meaningful development and test plant. Certainly a dedicated research and development
program on thermal storage could significantly accelerate the use of this promising
technology.
The second topic of discussion relating to CSP is the integration of large CSP
plants into the regional and national electric grid. This topic raises numerous issues
including availability of land for large scale installation, land-use issues such as
water use and permitting and the availability of transmission facilities and transmission capacity to deliver the energy to load centers. The cost, timing and risks
associated with each of these factors must also be considered.
One additional aspect of large scale CSP that must be considered is the status
of financial incentives. Currently, the 30 percent Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for
solar has resulted in projected project costs that are significantly more competitive
than any time in the past. But without a long-term extension of the ITC, many large
scale CSP projects will never be launch due to the time it takes to address the
issues noted in the preceding paragraph. Large scale CSP plants require three to
five years from commitment to start up Today, the ITC is set to expire at the end
of 2008. The one to two year ITC extensions that have been typical in previous
years, will not provide sufficient certainty to enable major CSP development. Longterm extension of the ITC is critical to CSP development.
One critical aspect of the ITC is the fact that it is not available to public utilities.
The restriction needlessly narrows application of the credit and is unfair to U.S. citizens because the vast majority purchase power from a public utility, as it is defined
by the tax code. Therefore, a utility wishing to plan a large CSP resource would
need to assume no ITC, or secure a third-party owner of the plant. This current policy forcing a third-party relationship to take advantage of the ITC creates unnecessary uncertainty and costs to the system. It forces the utility and regional grid to
consider the operational and financial risks inherent in any third party relationship
thus affecting the utility operating strategies. These risks can certainly be analyzed
and managed but create a potential sub-optimum situation when they are the only
strategy available.
While there are numerous issues to be addressed, APS is bullish about CSP and
is leading a group of southwestern utilities exploring a 250 MW CSP plant in the
desert southwest. We have found several constraints to a successful project including the financial factors associated with the end of the ITC in 2008, and the lack
of transmission capacity. In fact, transmission is generally constrained in much of
the west and significant new transmission investment is needed in the coming years
for all types of generation be they renewable or conventional generation. New transmission is being planned throughout the west and in California and Texas specifically to access renewable resources including wind and geothermal. Others states
and utilities, including APS, are studying their needs for both intra and interstate
transmission to ensure a robust grid to meet the needs of the Wests burgeoning
population. The studies include the ability to reach those areas of the west with
abundant low cost renewable resources.
Answers to the questions about CSP, and indeed renewables in general, are not
simple. Intermittent renewable resources such as wind and solar present special
economic challenges for transmission investment because they do not efficiently utilize the transmission investment at all times. Wind integration studies have and are
being performed. We believe CSP has a significant potential to provide large
amounts of renewable energy to the U.S. and that a federal study on transmission
for large scale CSP would be beneficial and appropriate.
Finally the issue of locating large scale CSP on federal land should be investigated and analyzed. By its nature, solar technologies require significant geographic footprints. A general rule of thumb for a solar installation is five to 10 acres
per megawatt. That means for a single 250 megawatt facility, 1,250 to 2,500 contiguous acres of land would be required. Considering that the Federal Government is
the largest land owner in the U.S., a study of federal land in high solar resource
areas that may be made available for CSP development would also be beneficial and
appropriate.
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In summary, APS is proud of its contributions to the advancement of solar technologies including CSP, but more needs to be done. APS believes that large scale
CSP has the best potential to provide cost effective solar energy to the U.S. and this
potential improves dramatically with the addition of thermal storage. Understanding how these large CSP installations will impact the regional and national
grid must be understood. We support federal funding for a CSP integration study.
We encourage additional federal attention and support for CSP and welcome the opportunity to continue to work with the U.S. national labs and the solar industry on
the further advancement of solar resources into our national energy portfolio.
Thank you Mr. Chairman and the Members of the Committee for the opportunity
to share these observations and opinions with you.
BIOGRAPHY
FOR
HERBERT T. HAYDEN
Since 1993, Herb Hayden has led the development, construction and operation of
solar power plants for APS, the largest and longest-serving electric utility in Arizona. Over six Megawatts (MW) of solar generation has been installed to date by
APS, including photovoltaic (PV) and advanced concentrator solar power systems
(CSP). These CSP systems include Concentrating PV (CPV) and one MW of Concentrating Solar Trough thermal generating systems.
Herb has managed the development of new solar technologies that have placed
APS in a leadership role for solar systems of particular promise for utility use.
These include larger-scale PV tracking systems using present-day commercial PV
panels, and the high concentration PV (CPV) and dish-engine systems that are
emerging to address the price and supply limitations of conventional PV products.
Much of this work is visible at the APS Solar Test And Research (STAR) center,
where new solar technologies are under test in the Arizona environment.
In addition to grid-connected solar, Herb initiated the development of the APS Remote Solar Electric Service. This program provided off-grid solar power services to
50 homes and ranches in Arizona, as well as several unique larger scale solar hybrid systems for military, national park and commercial customers in the U.S.
southwest and Mexico.
Herb is a PE in Arizona, having received his BSEE with honors from Arizona
State University in 1983. Prior to his solar work at APS, Herb performed project
management and engineering for APS telecommunications systems, and worked
four years at Motorola in the development of advanced electronic systems.
Solar technology participation areas:
Over six MW of solar generation currently installed and operating
Development and operation of 500 kW of CPV, in collaboration with Amonix
Inc.
Formation of Concentrating Technologies LLC, developing an advanced new
triple-junction CPV product in collaboration with Spectrolab
First Dish Stirling utility installation in Arizona, in collaboration with SAIC
and Stirling Thermal Motors, plus studies of advanced Dish Turbine concepts
Demonstration of the solar generation of hydrogen using Dish Stirling, and
the reversible use of hydrogen to generate electricity using the Stirling engine
Development of the APS large two-axis tracker system for high concentrating
solar (320 m2 per unit tracking area)
Development of APS Single-Axis horizontal tracker PV system
Development of APS Single-Axis Tilted Tracker PV system
The first use, and APS development role in Shingleton single-axis tracker,
which later was purchased by Powerlight and sold as their Powertracker
Formation of FWR LLC, manufacturer of solar tracking control electronics,
and data acquisition equipment
Development of APS Remote Solar Electric Service, providing and maintaining small hybrid PV systems for service to remote homes, ranches and larger
scale uses
Working relationships with NREL, Sandia National Labs, Arizona State University, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Weizmann Institute of Science Solar
Institute
Served as member of DOE Concentrating Solar Power Peer Review Commission, 2002
Several patents, and several papers on high concentration PV and solar tracking systems, numerous international presentations
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Patents:
Four patents awarded for solar tracking systems and controls
Four additional patent applications in process
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Hayden.

Mr. Resch, please.
STATEMENT OF MR. RHONE RESCH, PRESIDENT, SOLAR
ENERGY INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION
Mr. RESCH. Thank you, Chairman Lampson, Congresswoman

Giffords and the Members of the Subcommittee for providing me
the opportunity to testify on these important issues this morning.
My name is Rhone Resch. I am President of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group here in Washington that represents over 500 companies and over 20,000 people employed in the
U.S. solar energy industry including hundreds of small businesses
throughout the United States.
I would like to thank the Committee and its staff for providing
true leadership in advancing solar energy in the United States. A
key element of leadership is providing the opportunity to empower
others to lead and today you seek to empower individual Americans
to strengthen our energy independence, to become high-tech workers, adopters and advocates for solar technologies that can help
meet Americas energy challenges in the 21st century.
With regard to the establishment of a check-off program for
solar, I would like to convey three points. First, the high priority
the highest priority for the solar energy industry is the creation of
a long-term incentive for solar to help lower costs and provide a
clear market signal to manufacturers to actually expand production. Only then will we have a supply to meet the demand of an
educated market and only then will a check-off program succeed.
Second, solar energy technologies provide significant energy security, environmental, and economic benefits to the American public
and must be a significant part of our energy portfolio going forward. And third, the solar industry would greatly benefit from the
creation of a federal check-off program just as dozens of other U.S.
industries have benefited from these programs.
While solar prices have dropped by 90 percent in the last 25
years, solar is still two to three times as expensive as the national
retail electricity rates. Furthermore, the United States has been
eclipsed by Germany, Japan and China in the manufacturing and
use of solar. Incredibly, Germany installs eight times the amount
of solar each year as the United States despite having the same
amount of sunlight as Anchorage, Alaska, as you can see from this
map here. When you do look at that map, you can see that the
United States really does have world-class solar resources in all 50
states. Certainly if you can make solar work well in Germany, you
can make it work well in all 50 states in the United States. But
Germany enjoys market leadership because its government has enacted long-term incentive policies that have jump-started the installation market. Congress is currently considering legislation to
extend the federal solar investment tax credits for homeowners and
businesses, H.R. 550, the Securing Americas Energy Independence
Act. Specifically, these bills will create an eight-year extension in
expansion of the ITC for commercial systems and an eight-year ex-
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tension in expansion for the residential systems. I want to commend Chairman Gordon, Subcommittee Ranking Member Inglis,
Congresswoman Giffords, Congressman Udall, Congressman Baird,
Congressman Bartlett, Congressman McCaul for co-sponsoring this
important legislation without which a check-off program would not
galvanize in the United States. We need to have this policy support
in place to make the domestic industry competitive in the global
marketplace for solar technologies, and I respectfully request that
the Committee reach out to Chairman Rangel of the Ways and
Means Committee and ask him to support the provisions in H.R.
550 and the tax title of the energy bill which will be marked up
tomorrow.
Solar energy is the Nations most abundant energy resource and
it can greatly improve the U.S.s ability to have a secure and reliable energy supply. Solar requires no field to operate and our panels are warrantied to last for 20 to 25 years, and you will see a
panel being put up here in just a minute, and this is one of the
things to point out. Once you installonce you buy and install a
solar system on your house, it is like buying a car with all the gas
you will need for it for its entire lifetime. Sure, it has most of a
cost upfront but it will hedge the consumer against rising energy
prices in the future. And on a community scale, solar can help stabilize volatile electricity prices and relieve tight markets for natural gas by reducing demand during midday peak when the most
expensive, least efficient generation is used.
Moreover, solar is the cleanest method of electricity generation.
Electricity for solar produces no air pollution, no water pollution,
no noise pollution, no radiation, no solid waste, has no impact on
wildlife, except maybe inconveniencing the squirrels that are running around on your roof, and uses no water for generating electricity, an increasingly important issue for the fast-growing communities of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, California and Colorado,
as Herb just pointed out.
As we begin to tackle climate change in a real manner, keep in
mind that over the 40- to 50-year life of a solar electric system,
every kilowatt of solar electric power reduces 217,000 pounds of
CO2.
Finally, as todays hearing demonstrates, there are tremendous
economic benefits to be gained form increasing our use of solar energy. Solar photovoltaic creates 32 jobs per megawatt, more than
any other form of energy. Solar could provide more than tens of
thousands of new jobs in the coming decade in manufacturing, engineering, construction and installation, investing Americas energy
dollars in Americas workers.
If we are to begin harnessing this potential, we must significantly increase consumer education and awareness of solar technologies. While the public strongly supports the increased use of
solar, market research shows a broad gap in the understanding
that solar electricity operates just like regular electricity and that
solar can work anywhere in the United States. Many outdated misconceptions exist that the technology must be overcome in order for
consumers use to increase of solar. As you can see, this is a solar
electric panel. Most people still think that solar looks like the technology on Skylab, checkerboard pattern, inefficient use. This is
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made by a company in the United States. It looks like a flat-screen
TV. It is the most efficient panel made in the world, 22 percent efficient, absolutely gorgeous. I actually put it up on my house last
year. It generates about 85 percent of my electricity right here in
Washington, D.C. It is very exciting. But consumers lack the information on how to find solar companies and what solar products
might be available, and most solar installation companies are small
businesses, typically employing no more than a few dozen people
and lacking the budget to reduce a broad swath of consumers.
So in short, the solar industry needs to launch a national awareness campaign and numerous other industries have provided us
with a blueprint to do so. Congressionally created check-off programs have served as the backbone of many industries successful
promotion campaigns. Mr. Chairman, I am sure we are all familiar
with the dairy industrys Got Milk, the cotton industrys Cotton,
The Fabric Of Our Lives and the National Pork Boards Pork,
The Other White Meat. But Mr. Chairman, no pork was involved
in the creation of these campaigns, at least no Congressional pork.
Rather, these industries pooled their resources through a comprehensive program to fund consumer education. A Got Solar program, if you will, would provide major benefits to the American
public. Consumers would be able to obtain market information on
product and company quality and become educated about local and
national energy use patterns. Meanwhile, local solar installers
would benefit from broad public outreach that they would otherwise be unable to afford and see the resultant growth in their business.
To be clear, consumer awareness is only one major obstacle to
the widespread use of solar and a check-off program can only work
if we have proper market incentives and market mechanisms in
place.
I want to thank the Committee for giving me the opportunity to
speak, and I am available to answer any questions that you may
have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Resch follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
RHONE RESCH
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, for providing me
the opportunity to testify today.
On behalf of over 500 companies and more than 20,000 employees in the U.S.
solar energy industry, I would like to express support for the Solar Energy Research
and Advancement Act of 2007, legislation that would help solar energy to make
major strides in contributing to a clean, domestic, renewable supply of electricity
that is of, by, and for the American people. SEIA applauds Congresswoman
Gabrielle Giffords for her visionary leadership in introducing this bill.
My comments today will focus on the importance of a solar check-off program, or
Got Solar, to the future utilization of solar energy resources in the U.S. Aside from
cost, the greatest obstacle to solar reaching a wider domestic market is education
and public awareness. With respect to a Got Solar program, I would like to convey
the following points:
Greater use of carbon-smart, domestic solar energy would have myriad energy
security, economic, and environmental benefits for the American public.
While the public broadly supports the greater use of solar energy, most Americans do not have a basic understanding of solar technology products or how
to purchase them.
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Educating the public on solar energy is primarily the responsibility of the
solar industry, but most solar installers are small businesses that lack the
means to reach a broader swathe of consumers.
Building on dozens of U.S. industries successful examples, Congress should
establish a coordinated program of promotion and research, funded by industry at no cost to the government, to increase consumer education about solar
energy.
Finally, a check-off program will only succeed if appropriate incentives are in
place, including an eight-year extension of the federal investment tax credits
(ITC).
Public Benefits of Solar Energy
The U.S. solar energy industry is growing and providing more carbon-smart, domestic energy every year. Solar energy technologies can provide major energy security, environmental, and economic benefits to the American public, all of which will
be realized with broader consumer awareness and adoption of solar.
Energy Security
As Congress looks to increase the use of carbon-smart renewable energy, it is critical that priority be placed on technologies that also improve U.S. energy security.
Solar energy, in all of its forms, is a technology that can greatly improve the U.S.s
ability to have a secure and reliable energy supply.
The electricity infrastructure in the U.S. is aging and energy consumers are increasingly subject to outages that affect critical infrastructure and disrupt business.
The blackout of August 2003 in the Northeast, triggered by a tree limb landing on
power lines, cost consumers and businesses tens of billions of dollars. Unfortunately,
this event is not unique and will occur with greater frequency if Congress does not
take steps to diversify our energy portfolio.
The good news is that this event could easily have been avoided through greater
use of solar energy. A 2004 Department of Energy (DOE) study entitled Solution
to the Summer Blackouts? concludes that if solar energy had met just one percent
of local peak demand, we would have avoided the August 2003 blackout and other
local brown-outs. DOEs explanation was simple: high air conditioning loads stressed
the grid and created the circumstances for the blackout. This extreme load occurred
on one of the hottest and sunniest days during the summerthe exact time when
output from solar systems is greatest. DOE also concluded that over reliance on central generating stations led to grid fatigue and failure. This infrastructure vulnerability could have been minimized through greater reliance on distributed solar energy.
Photovoltaic (PV) and solar water heating systems are distributed generation
(DG) technologies. Like other DG technologies, they provide energy at the point of
consumption rather than at a central power plant hundreds of miles away. As such,
DG does not rely on vulnerable regional transmission lines and local distribution
networks. By producing energy at the source of consumption, solar power alleviates
stress and vulnerability on the grid.
The DOE study also concluded that investing in solar energy is a more economically efficient and cost effective way to improve our energy infrastructure than capital intensive and often community-opposed transmission line upgrades and brandnew transmission lines. In sum, using solar energy is a cost-effective, affordable way
to alleviate stress on the electricity grid and improve the overall reliability of our
electricity infrastructure.
Solar is also the most reliable source of energy. This reliable track record has resulted in wide deployment of the technology in applications where power interruptions are unacceptable, including: oil and gas industry use of solar energy to power
pumps and meters at remote locations; telecommunications industry use of solar to
power relay stations and remote equipment; and, every satellite that has been sent
out into space in the last 30 years has been powered by solar energy.
Ironically, energy industry acceptance of the technology stands in stark contrast
to consumer behavior. Consumers are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in
small gasoline-powered generators. During grid failure and electricity outages, electronic gasoline pumps at the gas stations do not operate, rendering many generators
idle because of fuel shortage. Solar energy is a technology that can provide reliable
power during power outages.
Finally, solar stabilizes volatile energy prices, a critical energy security issue affecting the U.S. today. In the last five years, consumers have seen electricity prices
escalate between 20 and 78 percent. At the same time, we have seen the price of
natural gas triple and the price of gasoline routinely exceed $3.00 per gallon. Each
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year the cost of energy is taking a larger percentage of a familys income than at
any other time in U.S. history. This energy inflation vulnerability especially impacts
the poor and elderly on fixed incomes.
Solar can help address this vulnerability because it requires no fuel to operate.
Although a solar system is more expensive up front, there are no additional costs
for operating a system once installed. Furthermore, solar panels are guaranteed for
2025 years, allowing consumers to lock in their electricity prices for decades. Recognizing the upward trend in energy costs, incentivizing the use of a technology that
requires no fuel inputs is an important element of any energy security plan.
Energy Independence
Solar energy is a domestic and abundant energy source in the U.S. The U.S. has
the best solar resources of any developed country in the world. Proportionally, U.S.
solar energy resources exceed those of fossil, nuclear or other renewable energy resources. Despite this tremendous advantage, the U.S. has failed to capture and harness this free and readily available energy. In 2006, solar energy produced just 1/
30th of one percent of all electricity in the U.S.; Germany in contrast, with the solar
resources of Alaska, installed seven times more solar energy property than the entire U.S.1
The U.S. is over-dependent on foreign sources of energy. Demand for natural gas
continues to rise, primarily for electricity generation. Increasingly we are turning
to countries like Algeria to provide us with liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet our
growing demand. According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 41 new
LNG terminals are proposed for construction in U.S. harbors and off U.S. beaches.
Constructing these plants will exacerbate our addiction to foreign sources of energy.
Our desire for energy independence demands a different course.
Solar energy directly displaces natural gas used for heating homes and water. In
a home, solar can directly replace natural gas used to heat radiant systems and can
displace up to 70 percent of the natural gas used to generate hot water. Many countries that do not have a domestic source of fossil fuels, including Spain and Israel,
mandate that all new homes must have solar water heating systems installed. The
U.S. can demonstrate similar energy independence by using market incentives that
spur solar investment and market growth.
Solar energy also displaces natural gas used to generate electricity. Almost all intermediate and peaking electricity plants use natural gas as the source of energy.
These plants are often very inefficient and produce expensive electricity. Solar energy, which generates electricity from 8 A.M.7 P.M. daily, can displace these inefficient, high cost power plants, and become a reliable source of firm, dispatchable
power. Given the high price of natural gas to key industrial sectors and consumers,
the U.S. can no longer afford to neglect its abundant solar resources.
In addition to tempering natural gas demand growth, solar can also generate electricity to be used by plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, thereby displacing gasoline derived from foreign oil supplies. Imagine a gasoline-free electric vehicle that
1 Energy Information Administration, Net Generation by Energy Source by Type of Producer,
October 2006.
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also uses electricity derived from the sun rather than a coal-fired plant. The technology is advancing rapidly in this direction.
Environmental Benefits
Though the environmental benefits of solar energy might be considered a given,
it is worth highlighting several points. Solar is the cleanest method of energy generation, in terms of avoided air, waste and noise pollution, energy payback, water
conservation, avoided radiation and harm to wildlife, or environmental risk in the
event of an accident.
Solar energy produces no greenhouse gases, no acid precipitation or toxic emissions, and no other air pollution of any kind. Over the 4050 year life of a solar
electric system, every kilowatt (kW) of solar electric power reduces 217,000 pounds
of carbon dioxide, 1500 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and 830 pounds of nitrogen oxides
emissions as compared to electricity produced by conventional generation.2
Photovoltaic solar energy generates electricity without use any water. In contrast,
fossil fuel and nuclear based electricity generation use substantial amounts of water
to run steam turbines. Across the western United States, approximately 40 percent
of fresh water withdrawals are used for electric generation.3 If water-starved communities like Phoenix and Las Vegas are to continue growing, we must place greater emphasis on water-free electricity generating technologies.
Concerns have been raised whether the energy used to produce solar panels is
surpassed by the amount of energy generated from the panels. This energy relationship is referred to as the energy payback period. Currently, the energy payback
for PV panels varies from 14 years depending on different manufacturing variables. This means that a PV panel with a life expectancy of 4050 years will generate between 10 and 50 times more energy than was required to create the panel.
Despite this superior energy return on investment, the manufacturing process is
still growing more efficient every year as the scale of production increases.4
Strong Public Support Exists for Greater Solar Development
Polls consistently reflect that the American public strongly supports the accelerated use of solar technologies. For example, a 2005 poll by the Yale Center of Environmental Law and Policy 2005 found that 90 percent of Americans support building more solar power facilities to help reduce U.S. dependence on energy imports.
A Roper Public Affairs poll conducted in May 2007 found that nearly 90 percent of
Americans believe home builders should offer solar power as an option for all new
homes constructed. And 73 percent of those surveyed in another Roper survey in
2006 said that solar energy technology is more important today than ever in responding to Americas energy challenges.
2 NREL report, Distributed Energy Resources for the California Local Government Commission, October 2000.
3 Sandia National Laboratories, Energy-Water Nexus, http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/
news-releases/2006/environ-waste-mgmt/mapwest.html
4 NREL Report No. NREL/FS52024619: Energy Payback: Clean Energy from PV
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In general, Americans would like to see the Federal Government take a more active role in promoting solar development. A February 2006 poll by the Pew Research
Center found that 82 percent of respondents favored increasing federal funding for
research on wind, solar and hydrogen technology. A March 2006 ABC News/Time/
Stanford University poll found that 87 percent favored tax breaks for companies to
produce more electricity from water, wind and solar. Note that these policies would
require the use of taxpayer funds, unlike a check-off program.
Finally, polling surveys demonstrate that Americans are willing to pay more for
solar technologies under certain conditions. An April 2007 study by the New York
Times and CBS News found that 75 percent of Americans were willing to pay more
for solar electricity if it helped reduce global warming. Meanwhile, one-half of respondents in the May 2007 Roper survey said they would spend up to 10 percent
more for a solar-equipped house when told that solar homes have a proven higher
resale value. A majority of respondents cited the financial and energy savings of a
solar system as the main benefit of buying a solar system, indicating that consumers are assessing solar for its potential savings benefits and would support a
program that drives down the cost of solar.
Need for Improved Consumer Education About Solar
However, while 87 percent of respondents to the New York Times/CBS News poll
supported the use of solar to generate electricity, just three percent of respondents
said that they used solar to generate heat, hot water, or electricity. That is actually
a far higher solar use percentage than amongst the American public at large, but
it nevertheless illustrates the gap between broad public support for solar and its de
minimis use today.
Though growing exponentially and constantly innovating, the U.S. solar industry
is still in a nascent period. As mentioned above, solar PV provides less than 1/30th
of one percent of the current U.S. electricity supply. Furthermore, PV is primarily
a distributed generation technology that is installed on the rooftops of homes and
businesses throughout the U.S.a paradigm shift from the traditional model of centralized electricity generation. Most solar installation companies are small businesses, typically employing no more than a few dozen people, and lacking the budget to reach a broad swathe of consumers.
Thus, even as consumers embrace the idea of solar power, they are usually not
fully aware of its capabilities and they have misconceptions about how a solar energy system works in a home. Market reports demonstrate a lack of consumer understanding that solar electricity operates just like regular electricity and is the
same kind of electricity that a local utility company provides. 29 percent of respondents to the May 2007 Roper survey were not aware that solar energy can power
common electric devices like computers or appliances. A number of common myths
persist about modern solar technology, such as the belief that solar will not work
in places outside of the Sunbelt or that solar devices require more energy to manufacture than they produce in their lifetime, and these myths often inhibit consumer
consideration of solar as a viable energy source.
Furthermore, consumers lack information on how to find solar companies or what
solar products might be available. On a daily basis, the most common phone calls
to SEIA come from consumers who ask, Where can I find solar for my home? The
industry has taken a number of steps to centralize this type of information, including the development of a national solar installer directory, Findsolar.com. Individually, several companies have undertaken consumer awareness campaigns that
focus on basic technology education. Yet these efforts clearly do not equate to the
potential reach of a national consumer awareness campaign.
Benefits of a Solar Check-Off Program
A Got Solar program, based on a successful model used by other industries,
would address the above concerns by creating an industry-funded national education
campaign on the benefits of solar energy. Collectively, the industry would pool its
resources through an industry-wide program to fund this educational effort.
SEIA anticipates major benefits both to the consumer and to the industry with
the creation of a check-off program. Consumers would increasingly have the information they need to go solar. As the availability of market information increases,
consumers would be better able to conduct due diligence on product and firm quality
before purchasing a system. Educated consumers could convince their businesses,
local utilities, and public representatives to adopt solar energy and promote its use.
And the program would also help to drive down the costs of solar to the consumer
over time, creating a market demand signal that would help companies to rapidly
increase production for the U.S. market and achieve economies of scale.
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The solar industry would also reap the benefits of increased consumer education
and focused demand, which would translate into industry growth. A vibrant and
well-functioning market system would greatly help to make the domestic industry
competitive in the global marketplace for solar energy technologies. The benefits of
increased awareness of solar would accrue to a wide group of small-to mid-sized industry players (installers, local integrators, equipment suppliers), many of whom
would not be able to afford this type of broad public outreach and education.
Successful Precedents for a Solar Check-Off Program
The Got Solar program is based on a very successful model used in other industries to increase consumer awareness of their product. Check-off programs have
helped fund the dairy industrys Got Milk campaign, the American Egg Boards
Incredible Edible Egg, the Americas Cotton Producers and Importers Cotton, the
Fabric of Our Lives, and the National Pork Boards Pork, the Other White Meat.
In each case, a piece of legislation similar to the Got Solar program created a
board that collects a small assessment from each of the industrys members.5 The
funds are then directed toward education and public awareness campaigns.
Two examples of well-functioning check-off programs can be found in the oil heating and beef industries. The oil heating industry pushed for passage of the National
Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) Act of 2000, which assesses a charge of $.002 per
gallon produced on members of the oil heating industry. The program has allowed
an otherwise fragmented industry to pool its resources for advertising and also for
crucial research and development. NORA uses the funds to help development new
oil heating technologies, bringing better products with higher efficiencies to the public.
In another well-known example, the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985
charges cattle producers and importers $1 per head of cattle, with the assessments
overseen by the Beef Board and going to fund the National Cattlemens Beef Association. The program brings in millions of dollars per year to fund public education
and advertising campaigns, including the popular Beef, Its Whats for Dinner
campaign. This check-off program has been the backbone of the modern beef industry in the United States.
The beef industrys check-off program has undergone close economic analysis since
it was established. The most recent report, by Dr. Ron Ward of the University of
Florida, studying the check-off program from 20002004, showed the program to be
an exceptionally good method of growing an industrys market. The study found that
for every dollar invested in the check-off program, there was an industry return of
$5.6
Need for Legislative Authority
For a solar check-off program to be effective, it must be established through the
legislative process. Historically, industries have organized voluntary check-offs, but
they account for only a small share of all funding for generic efforts. Hundreds of
mandatory farm commodity promotion programs have been legislated by states or
the Federal Government. Nine out of ten U.S. farmers were contributing to one or
more of these efforts by the mid-1990s.7
5 Examples of statutes establishing check-off programs include: National Oilheat Research Alliance Act, 42 U.S.C. 6201; Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act, 7 U.S.C.
7401; 74117425; Cotton Research and Promotion Act, 7 U.S.C. 21022118; Potato Research
and Consumer Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 26112627; Egg Research and Consumer Information
Act, 7 U.S.C. 27012718; Beef Research and Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 29012911; Wheat
and Wheat Foods Research and Nutrition Education Act, 7 U.S.C. 34013417; Floral Research
and Consumer Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 43014319; Dairy Production Stabilization Act, 7
U.S.C. 45014538; Honey Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information Act, 7 U.S.C.
46014613; Pork Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 48014819;
Watermelon Research and Promotion Act, 7 U.S.C. 49014916; Pecan Promotion and Research
Act, 7 U.S.C. 60016013; Mushroom Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act, 7
U.S.C. 61016112; Lime Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information Act, 7 U.S.C.
62016212; Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 6301
6311; Fluid Milk Promotion Act, 7 U.S.C. 64016417; Fresh Cut Flowers and Fresh Cut
Greens Promotion and Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 68016814; Sheep Promotion, Research, and
Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 71017111; Canola and Rapeseed Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 74417452; National Kiwifruit Research, Promotion, and
Consumer Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 74617473; Popcorn Promotion, Research, and Consumer
Information Act, 7 U.S.C. 74817491; Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information
Act, 7 U.S.C. 78017813.
6 Dr. Ronald W. Ward, Beef Demand and the Rate-of-Return to the U.S. Beef Checkoff, September 2004, http://www.beefboard.org/uDocs/wardstudy-2004.pdf; Agricultural Marketing
Service of the Department of Agriculture, http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/mpb/beef/beefchk.htm
7 Armbruster, Walter J., and John P. Nichols. Commodity Promotion Policy. 1995 Farm Bill
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The adoption of a check-off program would ensure that all companies, both domestic and foreign, participate in a campaign to educate consumers on solar energy
technologies. Authority to collect assessments is facilitated by the government for
the practicalities of dealing in interstate commerce and the realities of enforcement
to eliminate the problem of free riders, or nonpaying companies that might otherwise benefit economically from programs that others have funded.
The establishment of legislative authority would help ensure that a solar checkoff program would succeed. Though it may be viewed as an industry-imposed tax,
it is a tax that is established by the industry, with the blessing of members of the
industry, and for the benefit of the industry. Thus, the industry would have the
power to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the program, with a focus on its
economic benefits to industry members.
Comments on the Solar ERA Proposal
SEIA requests a few key modifications to the proposed check-off program in the
Solar ERA Act. First, current language would exclude SEIA from nominating its
member companies to the Board of the new organization, and SEIA would not be
able to have a representative participate on the Board. As the national trade association representing the industry, SEIA would appropriately play a significant role
in a national industry consumer awareness and education campaign. Therefore, we
request that the criteria for eligible groups be modified to provide SEIA with the
opportunity to nominate candidates and directly participate in Board activities.
Second, while we support a scheduled industry referendum on the continuation
of the program, we believe that the current 22-month target date does not provide
enough time for the creation of a new organizational infrastructure and the development, testing, and execution of a national campaign. We request that the target
date be set no earlier than four years from the passage of legislation. Additionally,
we believe that the current 10 percent threshold of companies needed to request future referenda is too low and could potentially derail the program from being effective, and we propose that the threshold be raised to a minimum of 25 percent.
Conclusion
A Got Solar program would be a sound investment in our countrys energy future. By providing a mechanism to increase consumer awareness about solar energy
products, we can empower the American consumer to become part of the solution
to the energy challenges we face as a society. A check-off program would see more
of our energy purchasing dollars go towards an economically vibrant domestic manufacturing and installation base, and promote a carbon-smart, domestically produced energy source from the most abundant source on the planetthe sun.
Thank you very much for your consideration of my testimony. I look forward to
answering any questions you may have.
BIOGRAPHY
FOR
RHONE RESCH
Rhone Resch is the President of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA),
the national trade association of the solar energy industry. In this capacity he is
responsible for managing all aspects of the trade association and ensuring their success in advancing solar energy in the U.S.
SEIA represents all solar technologies and serves as the voice of solar energy in
the United States and is responsible for all market analysis and lobbying on behalf
of the solar industry with Congress and the Administration. SEIAs recent successes
include the creation of the residential and commercial tax credits in the 2005 Energy Policy Act and an expansion of the Department of Energys solar program budget from $84 million to $175 million. SEIA also orchestrates public campaigns working with the media to help shape public support for solar energy.
Mr. Resch has over 15 years of experience in clean energy and energy efficiency,
both in the private sector and the Federal Government. Prior to coming to SEIA,
he was Senior Vice President of the Natural Gas Supply Association, a trade association that represents both major and independent companies that produce and
market natural gas.
In addition he has served as Program Manager at the EPAs Climate Protection
Division in the Office of Air and Radiation, where he developed and implemented
energy efficiency programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and hazardous air
pollutants from the petroleum industry.
He also sits on the boards of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, the
Global PV Solar Energy Council, and is Chairman of the Western Governors Association Solar Energy Task Force.
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He holds an MPA in Management from Syracuse Universitys Maxwell School, a
Master of Environmental Engineering from SUNY Syracuse, and a B.A. from the
University of Michigan. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Lisa and two
children and has a six kW photovoltaic system on his home.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you.

Ms. Weissman, please.
STATEMENT OF MS. JANE M. WEISSMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERSTATE RENEWABLE ENERGY COUNCIL; VICE
CHAIR, NORTH AMERICAN BOARD OF CERTIFIED ENERGY
PRACTITIONERS
Ms. WEISSMAN. Madam Chairman, Chairman Lampson, Members of the Committee and staff, I am very encouraged to be here
this morning and I really thank you for the opportunity.
This is a perfect time to be talking about training and building
a confident and strong workforce for solar energy. Solar electric installations grew by over 40 percent in 2006. If we meet the goals
of the photovoltaic industry roadmap, direct employment will increase from 20,000 now to 62,000 in 2015. By the U.S. Department
of Energys own estimates, as many as 5,000 trained installers may
be needed to accomplish their new Solar America Initiative. Many
recent and well-documented reports and research show continued
and robust investment and growth for the solar energy market, but
as the market grows, so does the need for quality and accessible
training opportunities for these new green collar jobs.
The good news is that the framework is in place to give us the
tools we need to develop a strong workforce. NABCEP, the North
American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, offers professional credentials for renewable energy installers. Since 2003,
NABCEP has certified 365 solar electric installers from 40 states.
NABCEP certifications are based on strict psychometric guidelines
and credentialing principles. The process is rigorous for the applicant and requires documenting experience and passing a four-hour
exam. NABCEPs competency standard sends a clear message to
consumers and public officials that the industry stresses safe and
ethical business practices and high-quality workmanship standards. The bar has been raised for professional services in the solar
industry.
While NABCEP certifies the installer, IREC, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, accredits the training programs and certifies the instructors. Credentials are awarded using standards developed by the Institute for Sustainable Power. These standards
ensure legitimacy of what is being taught and by whom. A system
of review and audit provides a means to compare content, quality
and resources across a broad range of training.
We see promising trends for new practitioner programs. Community colleges, as my colleague, Joe Sarubbi, will talk about, and
technical schools are offering renewable energy courses. These
range from stand-alone courses, new energy certificates and associate degree programs. Classes are expanding from three- to fiveday workshops to semester-long courses.
The Committee asked me three questions. Question number 1: Is
there a sufficient number of people trained? As market performance continues to grow, the number of current training opportuni-
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ties falls far short of meeting the demand for qualified workers. We
need more classroom and hands-on training tailored to meet local
labor needs. Alliances need to be developed and advisory committees established between training centers and local business. The
curriculum needs to include real-world preparation with field and
on-the-roof internships.
Question 2: Are such programs necessary or useful? The current
training programs are a start at providing a critical service that
supports a strong and growing solar industry. However, their reach
is limited and training opportunities need to be broadened. We
must make sure that training programs are teaching students the
right skills to do a good job, that the facilities include the right
equipment and hardware, that safe practices are utilized and that
teachers are qualified. While many states support workshops and
training programs, New York provides a national model for us. Installer training is a top priority for NYSERDA, the New York State
Energy Research and Development Authority. To date, NYSERDA
has invested nearly $1 million to develop seven accredited solar
training centers across the state. NYSERDAs program is one to
emulate and replicate as it serves as a proven model for future
training programs.
Question 3: How can the quality of training programs be ensured? Training needs to be based on industry standards so that
students are taught the right skills with the right equipment. We
recommend the following. Training should lead to defined workplace knowledge, skills and abilities. Training should address
issues of safety, codes and core competencies of an industry-approved task or job analysis. Training should be in an environment
with appropriate facilities, tools and safe practices. Training should
offer a formal and planned learning structure where the learner receives some sort of feedback and their progress is monitored and
training programs and learning objectives should be assessed and
receive independent approval or accreditation.
We have the foundation in place for training and developing a
strong workforce. NABCEPs third-party certification programs are
a means for consumers to identify qualified workers. NABCEP has
set industry standards high. Now we need to provide the training
to meet these standards.
Madam Chair, I thank you for this opportunity. Members of the
Committee, thank you, and I would be happy to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Weissman follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
JANE M. WEISSMAN
Mr. Chairman, Representative Giffords, and Members of the Committee, thank

you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss education and training
programs to facilitate the adoption of solar energy technology.
I am the Executive Director of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, a non
profit organization working with state agencies, communities and industry across
the country. Along with technical assistance, targeted outreach, promoting uniform
guidelines and standards, and consumer protection, we focus on some of the current
and often difficult issues facing expanded renewable energy use such as connecting
small-scale renewables to the utility grid and developing quality assessment programs for renewable energy professionals, products and training programs. The
Interstate Renewable Energy Council offers third-party verification of training programs and instructors using an application and audit assessment process based on
standards developed by the Institute for Sustainable Power which is used inter-
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nationally. This framework of standards and metrics verify that training programs
and instructors have met predetermined and consistent criteria. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
I also serve as the Vice Chair of the North American Board of Certified Energy
Practitioners, NABCEP, a national, non profit corporation offering professional credentials for renewable energy installers. NABCEP was started in 2002 with the first
certification program for solar electric installers launched in 2003. To date, there
are 365 certified solar electric installers from 40 states. Both the photovoltaic and
solar thermal programs are based on strict, psychometric principles and
credentialing guidelines. It is a rigorous process requiring documentation of experience and/or training and the passing of a four-hour exam. NABCEPs competency
standards for certification sends a clear message to consumers and public officials
that the Industry stresses high quality, safe and ethical business practices and
workmanship standards. The bar has been raised for professional services for the
solar industry.
This is a perfect time to be talking about training and building a competent and
strong workforce.
The solar industry reports that solar electric installations grew by over 20 percent
in 2006. If the goals of the Photovoltaic Industry Road Map are met, total installed
capacity could increase to 9,600 MW by 2015. Direct employment would increase
from 20,000 now to 62,000 by 2015.1
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that as many as 5,000 trained installers may be needed by 2015 to accomplish their new Solar America Initiative.2
A survey conducted by the investment bank Jefferies & Company in February
2007 said that among renewable energy sources, solar power is viewed as likely to
contribute most to the worlds primary energy supplies by 2020.3
According to a report released in March 2007 by Clean Edge, global clean-energy
markets are ready to quadruple in the next decade, growing from $55.4 billion in
revenues in 2006 to more than $226.5 billion by 2016 for four technologiesbiofuels,
wind power, solar photovoltaics and the fuel cell and distributed hydrogen market.4
Add to these facts and market-based predictions rising retail electric grid prices,
volatile pump prices, climate change, the increasing value of energy independence,
and new and expanded state and federal policies. All of these influences are resulting in new green-collar jobs.
Training Trends
Over the years, the renewable energy industry has been fortunate to have a number of training centersthe Florida Solar Energy Center, Solar Energy International, the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, the North Carolina Solar Center and the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association. These dedicated programs
have provided us with experienced instructors and well-trained students. But as the
market grows, so does the need for quality and accessible training opportunities.
We are starting to see encouraging trends.5
More and more Community Colleges and Technical Schools (high schools and
private) are offering Renewable Energy Courses. These range from standalone courses, new energy certificates, associate degree programs, and customized training for business and industry.
Classes are expanding from three- to five-day workshops to semester-long
courses.
Students range anywhere from 1845 years of age. They may be existing college students in energy programs, other technology disciplines, existing trades
people, those looking at changing careers or those who are currently working
in the industry and are upgrading their skills and knowledge.
Some Community Colleges are incorporating renewable and alternative energy technology into existing trade programs such as construction, electrical,
Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning, and industrial maintenance trades
programs.
1 Our
Solar Power Future. PV Energy Road Map. www.seia.org

2 DOE Solar America Initiative (SAI) Funding Opportunity Announcement, October 11, 2006.
The goal of the SAI is to reduce the cost of solar photovoltaic technologies so that they become
cost-competitive by 2015.
3 March 7, 2007. RenewableEnergyAccess.com
4 Clean Energy Trends 2007. Authors: Joel Makower, Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, Clean
Edge.
5 Trends in Practitioner Training for the Renewable Energy Trades. Weissman, J.M. and
Laflin, K. Proceedings American Solar Energy Society Conference, July 2006, Denver, CO.
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In Eugene, Oregon, Lane Community College Energy Management Program offers
a degree and certificate program with a concentration for Renewable Energy Technicians.6
Cape Cod Community College Construction Technology program was recently relocated under the umbrella of the Environmental/Renewable Energy Program. All of
the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency courses will be electives for the Construction Tech program.
The curriculum at two technical high schools on Cape Cod in Massachusetts has
been developed so that renewable energy is integrated into existing shops and academic areas with articulations at Cape Cod Community College.
In January 2006, Austin Community College and the Texas State Energy Conservation Office advertised the offering of a 48-hour, 14-week course in solar electricity. The class at Austin Community College sold out two weeks ahead of the official start date prompting Austin Community College to offer a second section for
the 2006 winter semester.
In November 2005, Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York opened
its photovoltaic laboratory providing students hands-on experience installing photovoltaic systems. The courses are included in the colleges Electrical Construction and
Maintenance program curriculum.
Madison Area Technical Colleges Consortium for Education in Renewable Energy
Technology is a partnership among multiple institutions to share instructional resources and expertise. The curriculum is designed to supplement traditional degree
and apprenticeship programs and serve the needs of workers and employers.
The Renewable Energy Diploma Series at North Carolina State University is
structured so that intensive technology training covers not only the technical aspects but also the policy and business parts of the industry.
Through internship programs, students are gaining in-field, on-the-roof installation experiences in New York through the state and industry mentor/student program. The program is administered by the New York Solar Energy Industry Association and supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development
Authority (NYSERDA).
And the National Joint Apprenticeship & Training Program, the training arm for
the IBEW, offers its members and local unions quality training in photovoltaics. In
fact, they just published a text book on Photovoltaic Systems, which is an important
contribution to training around the country.
Question 1. Is there sufficient number of people trained and if not, is there
a sufficient number of training programs?
If market past performance continues and current projections are realized, these
emerging training opportunities fall far short of expected demand for qualified workers. The Solar Energy Industries Association predicts that direct employment could
increase from 20,000 now to 62,000 by 2015. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 5,000 trained installers could be needed to meet their goals. To date, we
have just 365 certified solar electric installers and 40 certified solar thermal installers. While there are more installers who have not become NABCEP-certified, and
while some of them hold licenses providing evidence of competency, there is still a
growing demand for trained and qualified workers.
And, even though we are seeing more Community Colleges and other educational
providers offer training programs and even with distance learning and web-based
instructional opportunities, we need more classroom and hands-on training tailored
to meet local labor needs. We need to see alliances developed and advisory committees established between training centers and local business and industry. Curriculum needs to include real-world preparation for solar installers with field and
laboratory experiences provided.
Question 2. Are such programs necessary or useful for prospective solar
panel installers and consumers?
The programs described above are providing a critical service to support a strong
and growing solar industry. However, their reach is limited and training opportunities need to be broadened.
As part of the Solar America Initiative (SAI), the DOE Solar Energy Technologies
Program is analyzing the current situation to identify needs for the training and
certification of photovoltaic system designers and installers. A task force has been
convened to study and report on these issues.
6 Workforce Education for Renewable Energy: Lessons Learned from a National Gathering of
Educators. Weissman, J.M., Ferranti, A. and Laflin, K. Proceedings American Solar Energy Society Conference, July 2007, Cleveland, OH.
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As training programs are offered by a variety of educational providers, how do potential students know that they will be taught the skills and knowledge they will
need to do a good job? Do the facilities include the right equipment and hardware
for training? Are there procedures that ensure safety and safe practices? Are the
programs managed in a fiscally responsible way? Are the teachers qualified? These
are some of the questions that come to mind as more courses are offered and enrollment increases.
While many states support workshops and training programs, New York provides
a national model. Installer training is a top priority for the New York State Energy
Research and Development Authority. NYSERDA is supporting the development of
an in-state network of training programs to provide accessible and quality instructional opportunities for those already in the renewable energy trades or for those
who are planning to enter the profession. To date, NYSERDA has invested nearly
$1,000,000 in developing seven accredited solar training centers and continuing education programs across the state, partnering with SUNY Delhi, SUNY Farmingdale,
the Ulster County Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), Alfred University, Hudson Valley Community College, the City University of New York and
local Joint Apprenticeship & Training Committees/IBEW.
The NYSERDA program is one to emulate and replicate as it serves as a proven
model for future training programs.
Question 3. How can the quality of training programs be ensured?
Training needs to be based on industry standards so that students are taught the
right skills with the right equipment.
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council, with input from industry and education subject matter experts, recommends the following guidelines for practitioner
training:
Training should be designed to provide educational, training, and skill development experiences that lead to defined workplace knowledge, skills, and
abilities.
Training should appropriately addresses issues of safety, codes, and core competencies of an industry-approved task or job analysis.
Training should be taught in an atmosphere with appropriate facilities, tools,
safe practices as well as administrative and managerial quality.
Training should offer a formal and planned learning structure where the
learner receives some sort of feedback and the learners progress is monitored.
Training should be taught under the administration of a legally registered entity.
Training programs and learning objectives should be assessed and receive
independent approval or accreditation.
Closing Remarks
The foundation is in place for training and developing a strong workforce.
NABCEPs third-party verification and certification programs result in a means for
consumers to identify qualified installers and encourage the development of a wellqualified workforce. NABCEP has set industry standards high. . .now we need to
provide the training to meet these standards.
Mr. Chairman, Representative Giffords and Members of the Committee, this concludes my prepared statement. I would be happy to take any questions.
BIOGRAPHY
FOR
JANE M. WEISSMAN
POSITIONS
Executive Director, Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC).
1994Present
Responsible for all policy directions, operations, and management for this
non-profit, membership organization. Developed the strategic route that resulted in national recognition of the Council for its education, procurement,
and market-based programs. Collaborate with the U.S. Department of Energy, National Laboratories, state energy offices, other state and municipal
offices, community groups, industry, and national organizations to promote
the procurement and use of renewable energy resources. Developed expertise in quality assessment through the development of certification and accreditation programs.
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National Director, Photovoltaics for You Program. 19911994
Directed this national commercialization initiative. Worked with utilities,
regulators, government, consumer advocacy groups, and the photovoltaic industry.
Executive Director of the Massachusetts Photovoltaic Center of Excellence. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 19851991.
Directed this multi-million dollar solar electric high-tech, public/private initiative. Responsible for all policy, marketing, operations, and program development.
EDUCATION
Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Program for
Senior Executives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1989.
Suffolk University, Business and Public Administration Graduate Courses,
1974.
B.A. Hood College, Frederick, Maryland. 1970.
ANSI Standards Training Course: Requirements of the ISO/IEC 17024
ANSI Standards Training Course: Standards Development Process
PUBLICATIONS
Jane M. Weissman (IREC), Kirk Laflin (PETE). Trends in Practitioner Training for the Renewable Energy Trades. Proceedings at the ASES Solar 2006
Conference. July 2006.
Jane M. Weissman (IREC). Defining the Workforce Development Framework
& Labor Market Needs for the Renewable Energy Industries. Proceedings at
the ASES Solar 2004 Conference. July 2004.
Ward Bower (SNL), Jane Weissman (IREC), Wendy Parker (ISP). Certification Programs for the Photovoltaic IndustryStatus and Plans. February
2003.
Barbara Martin (FSEC), Jane M. Weissman (IREC), Mark Fitzgerald (ISP).
A National Program for Certifying Solar Electric Practitioners. Proceedings at
the 8th International Symposium on Renewable Energy Education. August
2002.
Wendy Parker (ISP), Ward Bower (SNL), Jane Weissman (IREC). Costs and
Benefits of Practitioner Certification or Licensure for the Solar Industry. Proceedings of the IEEE 29th PV Specialist Conference, New Orleans, LA, May,
2002.
AFFILIATIONS
Board Member & Vice Chair, North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. 2001Present
Board Member, Solar Rating and Certification Corporation. 2005Present.
Elected as a Fellow of the American Solar Energy Society. 2004.
Board Member & Secretary, Institute for Sustainable Power. 2004Present.
Member, Solar Today Magazine Advisory Council. Present.

Mr. Sarubbi, please.
STATEMENT OF MR. JOSEPH T. SARUBBI, PROFESSOR/DEPARTMENT CHAIR, BUILDING SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT, HUDSON VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Mr. SARUBBI. Thank you. Madam Chair, Members of the Committee, it is certainly an honor and a pleasure for me to appear before you today to discuss the value of training programs for the installation and maintenance of photovoltaic systems. I truly believe
the timing is right for our country to invest in renewable energy
technologies. We are witnessing a renaissance in thinking about
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the way we generate and use energy in America and solar power
is a key component of this new mindset.
As we continue to embrace solar power, we need a well-training
workforce to be responsive to this fast-growing industry to ensure
success and our country has the educational infrastructure at the
post-secondary level capable of creating a skilled workforce in photovoltaic installation and maintenance.
At the forefront of this training are community colleges. With the
right resources, I have witnessed firsthand the ability of community colleges to quickly take action and develop credit and noncredit courses, certificate programs as well as associates degrees to
develop a skilled workforce in myriad occupations. Hudson Valley
Community College can certainly be viewed as a case study for developing a successful solar energy training program. We have
gained national and international recognition for our PV installers
programs and our training facilities. Our success was based on
three variables. First, a government agency such as the New York
State Research and Development Authority, who provided the
funding stream through grant opportunities as well as tremendous
guidance to help ensure success along with other organizations
such as the Interstate Renewable Energy Council and the North
American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, who are guiding
us toward accreditation. The second variable is collaborating with
the local certified PV companies with the expertise to recommend
the best equipment for training, advice on curriculum and on-thejob training for our students, and third, well-trained faculty to deliver high-quality education.
Now, we werent sure what was going to happen when we started
this process but to steal the baseball analogy, build it and they will
come, certainly held true for our solar training programs. Once the
word got out, interest came quickly and is growing fast in many
ways. From PV companies expressing interest in hiring our students, from individuals interested in gaining the solar training,
from homeowners seeking information about having solar systems
installed, and from other schools interested in learning from our
success, there has been tremendous synergy surrounding the development of our solar training program, so much so that Hudson Valley Community College hosted the first-ever national conference for
educators and trainers on renewable energy training and energy efficiency workforce education, and that happened last November
with educators and school administrators from other 30 states and
six countries. We had somebody come from Australia who was interested in seeing what we were doing. It was tremendously successful and we are hosting a second conference in March 2008, and
I share that because great things have come out of us starting a
training program in the solar industry. Members of the community
now have another career path. Solar companies are happy because
they can expand their services as more and more homeowners
clamor for solar power, all leading to job growth and economic development. Furthermore, our success has opened the door to develop wonderful partnerships with local solar installation companies as well as large solar manufacturing companies such as Sun
Power, who uses our facilities for training, and they are a Cali-
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fornia-based company and they come to Troy, New York, to utilize
our facilities.
In closing, I cant emphasize enough the importance of solaryou
know, certified solar training programs in ensuring the continued
growth of the solar industry. It is a critical cog in the wheel of success. Without sound training programs, that wheel might keep rolling for a while but it will break down. I ask the Members of this
Committee to please consider supporting this exciting bill and
thank you for giving me the opportunity to present my thoughts on
this, and I will certainly entertain questions afterwards.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Sarubbi follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
JOSEPH T. SARUBBI
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, its an honor and a pleasure for me
to appear before you today to discuss the value of training programs for the installation and maintenance of photovoltaic systems.
The timing is right for our country to invest in renewable energy technologies and
develop a workforce that will meet the demands of the ever-growing solar energy
industry. We are witnessing a renaissance in thinking about the way we generate
and use energy in America and solar power is a key component of this new mindset.
In fact, there is a real grassroots effort to increase the use of green energy technology and its time for a national policy to keep this momentum. Moreover, our
country has the educational infrastructure at the post-secondary level to respond to
the challenges of creating a skilled workforce in photovoltaic (PV) installation. What
we need is a comprehensive national plan for training that will help spur further
development and interest in solar energy.
At the forefront of training a workforce to meet the needs of this emerging industry are community colleges. While most four-year institutions gain notoriety for research and development, its community colleges that are, and will continue to be,
responsive to national, state and local initiatives that drive the development of
training programs. With the right resources, Ive witnessed first-hand the ability of
community colleges to quickly take action and develop credit and non-credit courses,
certificate programs, and new associates degrees that act as a catalyst for economic
growth by providing skilled workforces. For example, Hudson Valley Community
College is a comprehensive institution that serves the greater Capital Region of upstate New York. With more than 70 degree and certificate programs and more than
12,000 students, Hudson Valley Community College has positioned itself as a true
partner with businesses and government agencies in the region and across the state.
The college has received national and international recognition for its world-class
technologies programs, and its photovoltaic training program is no exception.
At the forefront of the colleges success with solar energy training, are the partnerships forged with government agencies such as the New York State Research
and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which offers numerous grant opportunities
in renewable energy technology training. In fact, NYSERDAs funding program for
the development of photovoltaic installers was the catalyst and mechanism that allowed Hudson Valley Community College to invest in PV training. By reaching out
to local PV Companies, Hudson Valley Community College was able to tap into experts in the field who are Certified PV installers as recognized by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP). With their help, as well as
assistance from NYSERDA, Hudson Valley Community College was able to create,
in a rather short period of time, a nationally recognized facility to train PV installers (see exhibits 13). The college developed credited PV courses to augment its
Electrical Construction and Maintenance Associates Degree program, as well as a
State University of New York (SUNY) approved Photovoltaic Installers Certificate
Program. In addition, through the colleges Workforce Development Institute, numerous non-credit PV installer training programs have been developed and are offered on an on-going basis.
Demand for Solar Energy Training
This collaborative effort between government, education and business has generated significant interest and demand throughout New York State and the entire
northeast. The perfect analogy to this venture: build it and they will come could
not be anymore true. The college was cautious in its approach to the number of
skilled PV workers it planned on training, not yet understanding the market demands. Today, its safe to say that the college underestimated the public interest
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and PV company needs as the solar industry has witnessed exponential growth in
the number of installations of the past few years. For example, in 2003, NYSERDA
received 80 applications for funding assistance of solar installations. By 2006 that
number grew to 286 applications, and 2007 is on pace to well exceed 400 applications (source: NYSERDA). Other agencies such as Long Island Power Authority observed similar growth. Ever since Hudson Valley Community College began to showcase its photovoltaic program and corresponding facilities, interest has grown at the
same rate. I receive inquiries from individuals seeking to obtain photovoltaic skills
via e-mail and phone on a regular basis. During the past year, five (5) companies
from throughout the region have inquired about the availability of PV students for
employment. One local certified photovoltaic installation company started its business in 2004 and had $80,000 in sales. In 2005 the company increased its sales revenue to $300,000 and by the end of 2006 it reached $1.2 million. This same company
has a sales revenue projection for 2007 that will exceed $2.4 million. Another PV
company stated that they need to hire three (3) installers for every $1 million increase in PV sales procured. Hudson Valley Community College is witnessing this
growth first hand and is positioning itself to meet the increase demand for installers.
Students Finding Jobs in the Solar Industry
As I stated earlier, Hudson Valley Community College was originally unsure of
the potential growth of the photovoltaic industry and decided to move cautiously towards training a workforce that exceeded demand. Our strategy was to supplement
an already popular and successful Electrical Construction and Maintenance associates degree program by introducing photovoltaic courses as an additional load to
students schedules. The college limited the number of students who could enter the
PV Program to eight to 12 students a year. The college just completed its second
year of training. Of the eighteen (18) students who completed the PV program four
(4) chose to immediately enter the PV field while the others sought employment
with the myriad opportunities in the electrical industry that each student is afforded upon graduation, such as electricians, electronic technicians, electric line
workers, electrical estimators, assistant project designers, etc. This spring, one particular PV company alone sought to hire four installers and two designers, but they
inquired too late to capture a good portion of our electrical students who had the
PV installation skills, as many already secured employment in other areas. The college is starting its PV Installers Certificate program this fall and is currently accepting applications of students for the one-year program. This certificate program,
coupled with our Workforce Development Institute non-credit PV training programs,
should help reduce the current shortage of trained PV installers.
Involvement of Local Business and the State of New York in Building Curriculum
The success of Hudson Valley Community Colleges PV training programs and the
development of its photovoltaic laboratory wouldnt be possible without the funding
initiatives and guidance provided by NYSERDA, as well as the expertise offered by
local PV companies. Both were instrumental and paramount to the advancement of
a first-class training program. In addition to the excellent laboratory facilities,
which were funded through a NYSERDA grant, our partnership with a local PV
company created the opportunity for students to work out in the field on actual residential installations thereby augmenting their training skills (see exhibits 4 & 5).
Such a relationship has helped ensure that our students enjoy high passage rates
for the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners Photovoltaic Entry
Level Certificate of Knowledge. Furthermore, Hudson Valley Community College is
currently working with the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) as it positions itself to become a national accredited training institution as well as offering
accredited training programs. The college expects to be accredited near the end of
the year.
Yet its the local and state partnerships that allowed Hudson Valley Community
College to be responsive to the needs of the community. Through NYSERDAs networking Hudson Valley was able to forge a solid partnership with California-based
SunPower Corporation. SunPower, seeking an East Coast presence for their growing
business, donated equipment for the faculty and students of the College to utilize
in exchange for SunPowers use of our photovoltaic laboratory at intermittent times
throughout the year (see exhibits 68). This relationship gave our students greater
exposure to more types of photovoltaic equipment and practices. SunPower has enjoyed their relationship with the college and is currently seeking additional avenues
of training with Hudson Valley. Moreover, other types of training associated with
photovoltaic installations have emerged that is equally important to the success of
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solar technologies. Local building inspector training as well as augmented training
on electrical codes will ensure quality installations. When New York State, educational institutions and businesses are all invested in developing beneficial training
programs such as photovoltaic installation, then the link between job growth and
economic development becomes transparent.
Photovoltaic training programs, much like other technology training programs are
expensive by nature. Yet, if done right, the high academic quality of such programs
becomes apparent and is usually successful in fulfilling its mission. Community colleges are the best fit to offer such training programs, but because of the shear nature of funding community colleges need financial assistance to develop first class
training programs. Continued partnering with government agencies and businesses
that have a vested interest in such programs could help build a national program
that will facilitate the adoption of solar technology.
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BIOGRAPHY
FOR
JOSEPH T. SARUBBI
Joseph T. Sarubbi of East Greenbush, NY, is a Professor and Department Chair

of the Building Systems Technology department at Hudson Valley Community College. He is a seasoned educator with more than 35 years experience in education
and the electrical construction and maintenance industry, and has more than 20
years experience developing customized training programs for firms such as General Electric, Owens Corning, National Grid, and Georgia Pacific.
Through a strong partnership with the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, Mr. Sarubbi has emerged as a leader in New York State in
developing credit and non-credit instructional programs in renewable energy technology in the areas of photovoltaic installation and energy efficiency, and is currently establishing training programs for the installation and maintenance of geothermal heat pumps, and wind energy systems. Under his leadership, in 2006, Hudson Valley Community College hosted the first-ever Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Workforce Education: A National Conference for Educators and Trainers. It
was attended by individuals from 30 states and six countries. The college will play
host to the conference again in 2008.
Mr. Sarubbi has a Bachelors degree in vocational technical education from State
University of New York Institute of Technology in Utica, NY and a Masters degree
in education administration and policy studies from University at Albany. He also
earned his journeyman electrician certificate through the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Sarubbi.

Dr. Arvizu.
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STATEMENT OF DR. DANIEL E. ARVIZU, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL
RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
ENERGY
Dr. ARVIZU. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Members
of the Committee, for this opportunity to discuss important issues
related to the Nations energy policies to meet our future energy
needs. I am the director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, and NREL, as we call it, is the U.S. Department of Energys primary laboratory for research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. I am
honored to be here to speak with you today. I might note, as I preface my remarks, that I started in the solar business more than 30
years ago as a young engineer working on solar power towers, concentrating solar power at Sandia National Laboratories, and we
have come a long way in that time.
I applaud the Committee for its continuing examination of solar
and other resources of renewable electricity and fuels. If we are to
ensure the Nation receives the full range of benefits from renewable energy technologies, we need to carefully balance and blend
new technology, market acceptance and government policies. It is
not a question of whether to rely on the market, on the research
or on the government action. As we work together, we need to solve
our energy problems by deploying all of these things simultaneously. DOEs Solar Energy Research Program supports the development and deployment of solar energy technologies and systems
that can help meet our nations electricity needs and reduce stress
on our electricity infrastructure. The solar program supports research at NREL as well as other institutions in photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, solar heating and lighting. Through the
Presidents Solar America Initiative, the SAI, the Nations goal is
to reduce the cost of solar photovoltaic technologies so they become
cost-competitive and effective with other sources of electricity in all
major U.S. markets by the year 2015. Although the bulk of the
U.S. national program is focused on photovoltaics, I will focus my
remarks today, oral remarks, that is, on concentrating solar power,
CSP, since that is really the topic of the discussion draft. It is primarily addressing where CSP fits into the overall portfolio.
Recent developments in the western U.S. illustrate the growing
concern over greenhouse gas emissions, consequently a market climate is opening up that is furthering the encouragement to deploy
concentrating solar power certainly in the U.S. Southwest. In the
United States, nine CSP power plants totaling 354 megawatts have
been operating reliably in California for the past 16 years and
there seems to bewe seem to be poised for some growth. These
plants are especially interesting because with the addition of thermal storage, they are ideally suited to meet peak demands of energy use in the Southwest. Until recently, however, this CSP technology has been stagnant, and as with all new energy technologies,
cost is the issue. CSP has had additional challenges in that this
technology requires scale to achieve its ultimate cost-effectiveness.
Couple the scale issue with high upfront capital costs and what you
have is a pretty high investment risk that really is difficult in the
traditional marketplace. In 2003, the solar program at the Department of Energy addressed cost by commissioning a detailed tech-
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nical analysis of what this technology could produce, and it was reviewed subsequently by the National Academies and I participated
on that panel. The cost of CSP at that point was concluded that
even though at that time it was around 12 to 14 cents a kilowatthour, that it could ultimately be down in the six to five cents a kilowatt-hour, and we believe that today even though costs could be
exceeded.
The discussion draft language on thermal energy storage addresses an important issue related to the intermittent nature of
solar energy and its impact on utilities and the potential for lowcost and efficient thermal storage is one of the key long-term attributes of large-scale CSP technologies. The ability of CSP technologies to store energy presents an opportunity for DOE and
NREL to establish an R&D effort that focuses on solar technologies
that can produce baseload power at five cents a kilowatt-hour, and
these systems could include storage of up to 17 hours that would
compete for firm power from coal power plants, especially when
they are outfitted with carbon sequestration technology. So it is expected that an aggressive R&D program could achieve these cost
goals by the year 2020.
The discussion draft also addresses transmission integration, and
an important issue for CSP is that CSP is best when the sun is
most intense and you have cloudless days, as we do in the sunny
Southwest. So plants are often located in desert or semi-arid locations where very few people live. Transmission lines are required
to bring that power from remote locations to the urban load centers. Throughout the West, access to transmission is generally limited because many lines operate at or near capacity. While transmission is a problem, it is particularly difficult for solar because
solar power plants need to be located where the solar resource is
and they do not always have close access to existing transmission
lines. Additional transmission lines would allow solar energies from
the Southwest to provide a very significant fraction of the overall
total electricity needs of the country. So early market penetration
of CSP could be driven by long-term extension of 30 percent investment tax credits for commercial solar technologies, but if the cost
of CSP power is too high when the tax credits expire, the market
will be significantly impacted because there will be a downtown in
that technology. An objective of our program is to see that the Department of Energys CSP R&D activities would be to decrease the
cost of the technology in a timely fashion so the market remains
healthy when tax credits might expire.
The Solar America Initiative of the Department has doubled the
effort to accelerate the deployment of photovoltaics in the marketplace and earlier this year 12 technology pathway partnership
projects were selected to receive up to $168 million over the next
three years and the awardees contributing over 50 percent of the
funding. The new portfolio continues our historic investment in
thin films and increases support significantly for concentrating
photovoltaics and silicon technologies.
In summary, to address our near-term needs in solar power, we
need a national strategy that promotes deployment of solar systems
and processes that are ready to serve us today. At the same time,
to address our longer-term needs and achieve a truly significant
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contribution from solar power technologies, we must make a new
major commitment to the research required to deliver the next and
subsequent generations of concentrating solar power, photovoltaics
and other new technologies. We also need to invest in the infrastructure and in the workforce required to promote sustainable
businesses and job creation. The good news is that the U.S. can
take back the global leadership that it once had in the solar energy
field. What is likely to be one of the most important new industries
of the century is solar energy through investing wisely now and in
the future. The timing is fortuitous because by most accounts, the
next big major market for global renewable energy use is here in
the United States.
I would be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Arvizu follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
DANIEL E. ARVIZU
Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to discuss important issues related
to the Nations energy policies to meet our energy demands for the future. I am the
director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energys primary laboratory for research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. I am honored to
be here, and to speak with you today.
We applaud the Committee for its continuing examination of solar and other
sources of renewable electricity and fuels. If we are to ensure the Nation receives
the full range of benefits that renewable energy technologies can provide, we will
need a carefully balanced blend of new technology, market acceptance and government policies. It is not a question of whether to rely solely on the market, or on
new research, or on government action, as we work to solve our energy problems.
To accelerate deployment of renewable energy technologies, we need to effectively
combine all three.
Its also crucial that this mix of technology, markets and policies be crafted so
that each works in conjunction with the others. The reality is that distinct renewable energy technologiesbe they solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, biomass
power, biofuels or geothermalare in different places in terms of their economics,
technological maturity and market acceptance. While a broad range of policies are
needed to spur on these varied technologies, the specifics of policies and incentives
to be enacted ideally must be tailored to fit the unique requirements of each of the
systems and devices we are seeking to deploy.
My testimony will address the Committees Solar Discussion Draft, share with
you related activities underway in the Solar Energy Program of the Department of
Energys Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and provide some specific reactions to the draft from our laboratorys perspective. I should note that on
behalf of DOE, the Administration has not had sufficient time to coordinate interagency views on the Discussion Draft, but the Department wants to provide some
preliminary comments.
SOLAR POWER: CURRENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
AND POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONS ENERGY
PORTFOLIO
DOEs Solar Energy Program sponsors research, development, and deployment of
solar energy technologies and systems that can help meet our nations electricity
needs and reduce stress on our electricity infrastructure. The Solar Program supports research in photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP), and solar
heating and lighting. Through the Presidents Solar America Initiative (SAI), a
major effort within his Advanced Energy Initiative, the Solar Energy Program goal
is to reduce the cost of solar photovoltaic technologies so that they become cost-competitive with other sources of electricity in all major U.S. markets by 2015.
The SAI is being implemented at a critical time in the evolution of the global solar
market. Worldwide growth rates for photovoltaics have averaged well over 35 percent for the last five years, which means the amount of installed solar power doubles every four years or less. However, this rapid growth is from a very small base;
PV still accounts for less than one percent of electricity generation worldwide. Presently, several nationsincluding China, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, and
Taiwanare attempting to attain larger shares of the global photovoltaic market by
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making significant public investments to spur private industry. At the same time,
technology improvements and State incentives are stimulating domestic demand for
photovoltaic systems in the U.S. The Solar America Initiative will provide the investment needed to expand U.S. advantages in product design and manufacturing,
assuring that American technologies play a leading role in the growing domestic and
global markets for solar electricity.
The SAI provides a unique opportunity to focus our efforts on accelerating cost
reductions and manufacturing scale-up of the domestic photovoltaic industry to capitalize on this opportunity. As we work to increase our energy independence and reduce our impact on environmental resources, solar technologies offer an attractive
carbon-free, pollution-free energy resource.
In Fiscal Year 2007, President Bush requested $148 million for SAIa 78 percent
increase over pre-initiative levelsand the significant Fiscal Year 2007 Congressional appropriation demonstrated that our nations leaders are in agreement that
developing cost-competitive solar technologies is an important priority. The SAI
R&D efforts supported by this funding are expected to expand domestic installed PV
generating capacity up to 10 GW by 2015. Beyond enabling increases in manufacturing capacity, these projects will help put U.S. industry on track to reduce the cost
of electricity produced by PVfrom current levels of $0.18$0.23 per kWh to
$0.05$0.10 per kWh by 2015a price that is competitive in markets nationwide.
STATUS OF CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER (CSP) MARKETS
Recent developments in the western United States illustrate the growing concern
over greenhouse gas emissions, and consequently, a market climate that is open to
further deployment of concentrating solar power (CSP) in that region of the country.
In September 2006, California enacted the California Global Warming Solutions
Act of 2006, which requires the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25
percent by 2020.1 In March 2007, California and four other western states (Arizona,
New Mexico, Oregon, Washington) announced the Western Regional Climate Action
Initiative2 in which they agreed to work together to cut their states greenhouse gas
emissions. With the large solar resources available in the Southwest, CSP-generated
electricity could play an important role in helping these states meet their emissions
reduction goals. In the longer-term, CSP-generated electricity could help all the
states reduce their greenhouse emissions.
Solar energy is the southwests most abundant renewable resource. In fact, California, Arizona, and New Mexico have enough combined solar energy to provide all
the power needed by the entire country. CSP technology is the least expensive solar
technology for providing large quantities of electrical power, and with sufficient storage, it can deliver baseload power. At a time when large quantities of carbon-free
power will be needed; CSP power plants, constructed primarily of concrete, glass,
and steel, can be quickly constructed and brought on line. The yearly CO2 emissions
from a 1,000 MW coal plant are approximately 2,300,000 tons. The yearly CO2 emissions from a 1,000 MW CSP plant would be nearly zero (there may be some need
for grid power during the operation of the plant). With access to adequate transmission, CSP could even provide inexpensive carbon-free electricity beyond the
Southwest to other regions of the U.S.
In the U.S., nine CSP power plants totaling 354 MW have been operating reliably
in California for over 16 years, and CSP seems poised to grow significantly in the
state. Each of the three major California utilities (Southern California Edison, San
Diego Gas and Electric, and Pacific Gas and Electric) have signed power purchase
agreements for a CSP project or have indicated an intent of doing so. In August
2005, Southern California Edison (SCE) signed a power purchase agreement for 500
MW of CSP dish-engine systems on a 4,500 acre site near Victorville, CA, with an
option to expand the project to 850 MW. In September 2005, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) signed a power purchase agreement for a 300 MW dish-engine project
in Californias Imperial Valley, with an option of expanding the project to 900 MW.3
In August 2006, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company initiated plans with Luz II,
LLC, to purchase at least 500 MW of solar energy beginning in the spring of 2010.4
The State of Nevada has put in place tax credits enabling the construction of a
64 MW CSP project near Las Vegas that recently came on line. Nevada Power will
purchase the power from the plant. A one MW CSP system, completed in 2006, is
1 AB 32 Assembly Bill, California Legislature, Retrieved on September 31, 2006, from http:/
/www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab0001-0050/ab32bill20060831enrolled.html
2 Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, Feb. 26, 2007. Retrieved on April 3, 2007 from
http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/documents/2007-02-26WesternClimateAgreementFinal.pdf
3 SDG&E Signs Solar Power and Other Renewables Energy Pacts, San Diego Gas & Electric
Press Release, September 7, 2005.
4 PG&E Announces Significant New Green Power, PG&E Press Release, August 10, 2006.
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operating in Arizona for Arizona Public Service. In addition, several other utilities,
under the leadership of Arizona Public Service, are investigating the potential of
forming a consortium that would buy power from a 250 MW CSP plant built in Arizona.
The southwestern states also have strong renewable portfolio standards (RPS)
which require that a specific portion of a states electricity consumption be met by
renewable energy by a certain year. RPS are chief among the state policies that
promote renewable energy, and some even specify that a certain amount of power
must come from solar energy.
CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER TECHNOLOGY STATUS
As with all new energy technologies, cost is an issue. But CSP has an additional
challenge: the technology requires scale to achieve its ultimate cost effectiveness.
Couple the scale issue with high up-front capital costs and the investment risk is
too large for current market conditions.
The Solar Program addressed the cost issue by commissioning a detailed technical
analysis of CSP by an independent engineering firm and then having the analysis
reviewed by the National Research Council. Sargent and Lundy (S&L) was selected
to conduct this analysis on the basis, among other factors, of its independence from
the CSP industry and its recognized performance in conducting due diligence studies for the fossil power industry. S&L estimated that the cost of CSP technology can
be significantly reduced from 1214 cents/kWh (as of 2003). Sargent & Lundey predicts projects ultimate costs for CSP troughs at 6.2 cents/kWh and power towers at
5.5 cents/kWh. Sandia and NREL (Sunlab) predict costs could be even lower.
Since the S&L report was completed in 2003, the experience gained from trough
plants being built in the U.S. and Spain is enabling industry to lower their cost
through mass production and building larger plants. Since the S&L report was written, the price of steel, concrete, copper, and other commodity materials have risen.
Although the numbers, as of 2007, are low, the figure continues to show the potential for CSP cost reduction.
Because sunshine is most intense during the hot summer months when air conditioners are working the hardest, solar energy is a good match for a utilitys peak
load. With 35 hrs. of storage, CSP is also a good match to a utilitys intermediate
load. After gaining market penetration within the intermediate and peak load markets, however, CSP could expand into baseload generation markets through the expanded use of thermal storage, thereby providing a renewable alternative to baseload coal power. CSP technologies convert solar energy into thermal energy which
is then stored in large tanks. This is an efficient way of keeping the energy until
its needed, at which time the hot fluid, often a molten salt mixture, is pumped to
a power block where it is converted to electrical power through a turbine.
The Role of Thermal Energy Storage and Transmission Integration
The Discussion Draft language on thermal energy storage addresses an important
issue related to the intermittent nature of solar energy and its impact on utilities.
Adding thermal storage to concentrating solar power (CSP) plants enables solar energy to be provided any time, day or night, that power is needed. Thermal storage
also has the potential for being low cost. An independent study by Sargent & Lundy
concluded that CSP costs could be reduced to between 4.3 and 6.2 cents/kWh by
2020 for technology that utilizes thermal energy storage.5
The potential for low-cost and efficient thermal storage is one of the key long-term
attributes of large-scale CSP technologies. Key advantages of thermal energy storage are:
High Value Dispatch of Electricity: Without thermal energy storage, solar
power is an intermittent power resource, dependent on when the sunshine.
Thermal energy storage allows the collection of solar energy to be separated
from the generation of electric power, providing the ability to dispatch generation when the value for electricity is highest.
Firming Delivery for Solar Power: The ability to store energy and dispatch
solar power when it is needed helps make solar power plants a more reliable
or firm power resource for the utility. Firming of delivery is an important aspect of supporting the economics of solar power plants through utility capacity payments.
Increasing the Annual Capacity Factor: Solar power generating systems without thermal storage achieve capacity factors in the range of 2530 percent.
5 Assessment of Parabolic Trough and Power Tower Solar Technology Cost and Performance
Forecasts, Sargent & Lundy Consulting Group, SL5641, May 2003.
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With the addition of advanced, low-cost thermal energy storage, systems can
be economically sized to allow capacity factors of 75 percent or higher. As a
result, with the addition of thermal energy storage it is possible for solar
power plants to operate at or near baseload conditions.
The ability of CSP technologies to store energy presents an opportunity for DOE
to establish an R&D effort that focuses on a solar technology that can produce baseload power at about five cents/kWh. Such systems would include 1317 hrs. of thermal storage and would compete with the cost of power from coal plants using carbon
sequestration technology. It is expected that an aggressive R&D program could
achieve the cost goal by 2020.
The Discussion Draft also addresses transmission integration, an important issue
for CSP plants. CSP works best where the sun is most intense and there are few
cloudy days, so plants are often located in desert or semi-arid locations where few
people live. Transmission lines are required to bring the power from these remote
locations to urban load centers. Throughout the West, access to transmission is generally limited because many lines currently operate at or near capacity. While transmission is a problem for all new power generation, it is particularly difficult for
solar because solar power plants need to be located where the solar resource is best
and these are not always near existing transmission lines. Addition transmission
lines could allow solar energy from the Southwest to provide up to 6,800 GW of electricity to the U.S.
POTENTIAL R&D AND MARKET STRATEGY FOR CSP TECHNOLOGY
During the last three years, representatives of the DOE and NREL solar programs have met with the energy and economic advisors to governors, energy regulators, state legislators, utilities, and other stakeholders in California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. These meetings were to provide the states the economic, environmental, and energy benefits of CSP. Each state expressed an interest in CSP,
although their interest was tempered by the high cost of the technology. They were,
however, encouraged by the Programs projections of significant cost reduction and
also showed interest in finding ways to encourage the deployment of CSP in their
states. Nevada subsequently implemented tax incentives that have led to the construction of a 64 MW CSP plant outside of Las Vegas.
Utilities have demonstrated a serious interest in CSP for several reasons:
The widespread availability of solar energy throughout the Southwest provides utilities with flexibility in locating CSP plants near existing or planned
transmission lines.
Placing CSP plants on the right side of congestion can reduce grid congestion and increase grid reliability.
CSP electricity production aligns closely with periods of peak electricity demand, reducing the need for investment in new generating plants and transmission system upgrades.
Thermal storage or the hybridization of CSP systems with natural gas avoids
the problems of solar intermittency and allows the plant to dispatch power
to the line when it is needed.
Large centrally-located power plants are the types of systems that the utilities have operated for years and with which they are most comfortable.
Once the CSP plant is built, its energy costs are fixed; this stands in contrast
to fossil fueled plants that have experienced large fluctuations in fuel prices
during the last several years.
The economic studies performed by the states show that a relatively small upfront investment can result in downstream tax revenues for the State and
local governments.
Utility representatives expressed particular interest in CSP because its ability to
store energy enables solar power to be dispatched to the grid through their entire
period of peak demand, or whenever else it is needed. CSP was also attractive to
them because of its size (50250MW), use of conventional steam turbine power
blocks, and the ability to hybridize CSP plants with natural gas.
Utilities have indicated that even with storage and the other advantages mentioned above, it is hard for them to justify purchasing CSP power above 10 cents/
kWh when they can buy less expensive wind power. In California, utilities can pass
along the higher cost of renewable energy to their rate payers as long as its under
about 10 cent/kWh. Reaching 10 cent/kWh is thus important for early market penetration. The federal investment tax credit is important because it does much to
bridge the cost gap. It is also important for the cost of CSP power to be at 57 cents/
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kWh by 2015. So early market penetration of CSP could be driven by a long-term
extension of the 30 percent investment tax credit for commercial solar technologies.
But if the cost of CSP power is too high when the tax credit expires, the market
will take a significant downturn or become completely stagnant. An objective of the
DOE and NREL CSP R&D activities would be to decrease the cost of the technology
in a timely enough fashion so the market remains healthy when the tax credits expire.
To achieve this objective, we must reduce CSP costs to provide intermediate
power at 57 cents/kWh with 46 hrs. of thermal storage. These activities would
focus on developing the solar collector, receiver, and other components of trough
plants to attain the system goal.
To reach the long-term objective of providing baseload power, we will need to establish feasibility, develop components, evaluate, and test new system concepts beyond the trough plant design. The concepts likely to be examined include power towers, distributed power towers, concentrating line focus receiver (linear Fresnel), and
dishes w/storage. The criteria for developing these technologies will include a detailed analysis that defines the current state of the technology, the needed advancements in efficiency and cost of each component, the development and manufacturing
pathways needed to achieve the goal, the time to achieve the advancements, and
the ability of the industry partner to commercialize the technology.
THE PHOTOVOLTAICS R&D STRATEGY
Prior to January 2006, our research focused on technical progress through increasing the conversion efficiencies of solar cells and reducing the manufacturing
costs of photovoltaic modules. Our national laboratoriesNREL and Sandiaimplemented this R&D, which included providing relatively stable funding to companies
and universities, resulting in steady, incremental progress. Hundreds of individual
projects were funded at the national laboratories, universities, and companies that
generated continued interest in photovoltaics throughout the country.
But this picture changed after January 2006. We began with a change in program
strategy, along with a fresh look at the solar energy industry by the investment
community, and supportive policies from numerous State and local programs. The
focus of our research shifted from technical progress on components to integrated
PV systems. Under the new strategy, companies funded by SAI are expected to develop products for priority markets, and industry is expected to influence the research agenda for the national laboratories and universities.
Dramatic progress is anticipated from multiple competitive solicitations, coupled
with an aggressive process to evaluate results and eliminate awardees showing less
than substantial progress. The first set of large awards, called Technology Pathway
Partnerships, will support multiple industry-led partnerships over the full valuechain, whereas smaller projects will target earlier-stage technologies. Public attention will be attracted to these high-visibility projects, with the intent of stimulating
consumer interest and eliminating barriers to PV deployment.
Perhaps the most dramatic evidence of this new strategy was DOEs significant
investment in a new funding opportunity for industry-led Technology Pathway Partnerships. Entrance criteria for commercial applicants included prototype components, pilot production demonstration, and an established business case. At the end
of three year projects, awardees were expected to have commercial PV systems and
subsystems with annual production of greater than 25 MW. These partnerships include collaboration with national laboratories, universities, and suppliers to focus on
the development, testing, demonstration, validation, and interconnection of PV components, systems and manufacturing equipment. Through these efforts, the Partnerships are expected to reduce the installed cost to consumers to $0.05$0.10 per kWh
by 2015a price low enough to open up all major U.S. electricity markets.
Earlier this year, 12 Technology Pathway Partnership projects were selected to receive up to $168 million in DOE funding over the next three years, with the awardees contributing over 50 percent of the funding for these projects. Representing a
broad cross-section of U.S. industry, the projects involve more than 50 companies,
14 universities, three non-profits, and two national laboratories in 20 states. The selected projects leaders are Amonix, BP Solar, Boeing, Dow Chemical, General Electric, Miasole, Nanosolar, SunPower, United Solar Ovonic, Konarka, GreenRay and
Soliant. This new portfolio continues our historical investment in thin films and increases support significantly for concentrator photovoltaics and crystalline silicon
technologies. The portfolio is intended to deliver on the near-term potential in residential markets and commercial markets, which are targeted by 32 percent and 48
percent of the funding, respectively, with longer-term utility markets following at
20 percent.
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In addition to the Technology Pathway Partnerships, DOE will be releasing a variety of other funding opportunities to round out the PV R&D pipeline. These opportunities will focus on developing new materials and processes for solar electric conversion, transitioning fundamental science studies into the fabrication of new PV devices, shortening the timeline for companies to transition pre-commercial PV module
technologies into full-scale manufacturing, supporting university materials science
and process engineering research and improving inverters and power electronics in
distributed PV systems.
THE NREL PHOTOVOLTAICS R&D PROGRAM
The Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), now NREL, was originally created
to develop the technologies needed to foster a dynamic solar industry. Our Laboratory has succeeded in large part at fulfilling this charter and has been vital to the
development of the PV industry. In recent years, this industry has seen dynamic
change and significant growththanks to past R&D successes at NREL.
Importantly, this change has included the emergence of significant internal R&D
at start-up and established companies, as well as a proliferation of PV research at
university laboratories around the country. With the industry and academic elements of the domestic PV R&D community changing significantly, in early 2007 we
began to reexamine our research strategy to ensure that it will be complementary
and relevant in years to come.
During spring of 2007, we began formulating a new multi-year research plan
with associated personnel and equipment plansthat recognizes this changing market context and is being developed with input from industry and academic collaborators. This planning process is intended to ensure the long-term vitality of NRELs
research and its mission to help foster and sustain a strong American industry.
The new plan resulting from this process will improve on the existing concept for
managing NRELs PV R&D portfolio in several critical ways: (1) For a given technology development roadmap, the plan will more explicitly link the parameters
targeted for device performance or process development to the market impact they
would make if commercialized (e.g., in terms of change to commercial module costs,
manufacturing equipment capital cost, or manufacturing bills of materials); (2) It
will specifically identify the conditions and parameters under which a given device
technology or process will be sufficiently proven to be transferred via licensing or
other means for commercialization; (3) It will exhibit changing priorities over time,
as research tasks in various areas are planned to be completed and as new technologies emerge for further development; and (4) The plan will explicitly identify research tasks that will be performed in industry, academia, or other institutions that
are relevant to the activities and outcomes of NREL research activities.
We are extremely excited about our progress thus far under the new strategic
planning process. And we look forward to sharing the resulting R&D priorities and
management procedures in October 2007, at the start of our next fiscal year.
PHOTOVOLTAICS PROGRAM OUTCOMES AND BENEFITS
Upon realizing the SAI goal, it is expected that roughly two million metric tons
per year of carbon emissions will be avoided by 2015 and PV will provide approximately five GW of electricity generating capacitydisplacing roughly the equivalent
of five coal-fired power plantsenough to energy to power about 1.25 million households. This is equivalent to 10 times the amount of PV installed today.6
Distributed solar technologies will enable our ultimate goal of affordable zero energy homes and buildings which fulfills the Presidents Advanced Energy Initiative
vision of changing the way we power our homes and businesses. Net-zero energy
homes and buildings produce as much energy as they consume through improved
efficiency combined with renewable energy, such as solar, providing needed power
and offsetting any utility-provided energy over the course of a year. Optimizing the
balance of energy efficiency improvements and solar PV will result in the most cost
effective net zero energy home or building and connecting the solar PV system to
the grid can allow customers to sell the excess solar energy back to the utility.
Highly efficient buildings with distributed technologies reduce peak demand, and
will ease the need for expensive new generating capacity, transmission and distribution lines as our economy grows. Building-integrated PV can make the buildings sector a source of energy diversity and low carbon electricity (the building sector cur6 DOEs Office of EERE uses two energy-economy modelsNEMSGPRA07 and MARKAL
GPRA07to estimate the impacts of EERE programs on energy markets as part of its annual
benefits analysis. The NEMSGPRA07 model is a modified version of NEMS, the midterm energy model used by the EIA. The MARKALGPRA07 model is a modified version of MARKAL,
a model developed by Brookhaven National Laboratory.
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rently accounts for 39 percent of U.S. energy use). Total energy use in the buildings
sector is projected to increase an additional 30 percent through 2025, and we believe
that solar PV can meet much of this demand.
As the Committees Discussion Draft notes, educating energy consumers is critical
to achieving the market goals I have previously indicated. One of the ways we educate Americans about the new choices they have in heating, cooling and powering
their buildings is a unique project that encourages the development of zero energy
homes called the Solar Decathlon. The Decathlon, sponsored by DOE, challenges
schools of architecture and engineering to design solar powered, zero-carbon, selfsustaining houses from the ground up to see which house is the most aesthetically
pleasing and which house performs the best. Twenty collegiate teams from the
United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Germany will participate in this
years competition, which will be held on the National Mall from October 1220,
2007. The public is invited to visit the solar village and tour the houses, which
showcase the latest green building and energy efficient technologies.
BUILDING ON MOMENTUM: STRATEGY & PRIORITIES FOR 2007
During the first 18 months of the Solar America Initiative, DOE and NREL have
worked together to implement a broad-reaching change in strategy with one clear
purpose: to make PV technologies cost-competitive in all major domestic grid-tied
markets by 2015. We emphasize that this change was not implemented simply for
the sake of change. But rather, to take advantage of progress in module efficiency
and fabrication principally achieved by industry, universities, and the national laboratories over the years. These successes form the foundation for the PV systems
that we will be supporting in the future.
Priorities in 2007 include continuing to implement the funding opportunities described above. We will also establish the framework for additional university involvement in the Technology Pathway Partnerships and calibrate our Laboratorys
research portfolio and future role. And finally, we will ramp-up our efforts in testing
and evaluation of new product designsan activity that is critical to assuring the
reliability of the new products we are developing with industry.
SUMMARY: BALANCING SHORT- AND LONG-TERM R&D INVESTMENTS
IN SOLAR POWER
To address our near-term needs in solar power we need a national strategy that
promotes the deployment of solar systems and processes that are ready to serve us
today. At the same time, to address our longer-term needs and achieve a significant
contribution from solar power technologies, we must make a major new commitment
to the research required to deliver the next, and subsequent, generations of CSP,
PV and other new technologies.
The good news is that the United States can take back the global leadership it
once had in the solar energy fieldwhat is likely to be one of the most important
new industries of this centurythrough investing wisely now and into the future.
The timing is fortuitous, because by most accounts the next big market for global
renewable energy in here in the United States.
Thank you.
DISCUSSION
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you so much all of you for your opening remarks. We have a good amount of Members here so I want to get
going pretty quickly. Let us try to limit questions and answers to
five minutes and see how far we get.
SOLAR ENERGY
IN
GERMANY
I would like to kick off with some of the comments Mr. Resch
made in terms of what we can be doing as a country in comparison
to Germany. What happened in Germany, and for the panel, you
know, what can we learn from them, what are the take-aways,
what are some of the mistakes and the pitfalls?
Mr. RESCH. Thank you, Congresswoman. What Germany did first
and foremost was to make a long-term investment in solar energy
and they did it during the worst economic downtown since World
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War II. So what they basically said is, we need to diversify our energy portfolio, we are becoming increasingly dependent upon natural gas coming from Russia, and they felt it was very important
to look at what natural resources they did have in place, and that
is certainly solar, although their resources are lower than ours was
one of those resources, and they looked at all renewables including
wind and geothermal and biomass. They created a structure which
is a 20-year incentive structure to encourage the use of renewables.
It is called a feed-in tariff, or the EEG is the acronym in Germany,
and what it does is provide again a fixed incentive over a long period of time. It doesnt really translate, if you will, to the United
States because our electricity laws are very different but the most
important thing that they did was to give a long-term incentive
structure. Now, what has happened is, manufacturing has expanded rapidly in Germany and they have created almost 40,000
new jobs in Germany in the last five years because of the EEG.
These are manufacturing jobs in eastern Germany, a lot of installation jobs. You are seeing solar go up on barns, on homes, on factories, really all over the country, and they have gone from being
a country that ignored, if you will, solar to being the global leader.
They install eight times as much PV as we do each year. They install about 80,000 solar water heating systems each year. In the
United States, we install about 6,000 solar water heating systems.
And because of that, they have really created an economic force
and growth in Germany that frankly hasnt been seen since the
high tech, frankly the chip industry is a classic example, the U.S.
technology invented in the United States being commercialized by
the Germans and the Japanese and increasingly the Chinese. So
what they have done is provide a long-term incentive and structure
for encouraging people to use solar.
SOLAR CHECK-OFF PROGRAM
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you. How would the proposed solar research and promotion program or the check-off program enable industry to promote the use of solar power in a way that it currently
cannot, and why is the involvement of the Department of Energy
for this program so useful?
Mr. RESCH. The check-off program really does several things.
First and perhaps most important is, it allows all of the industry
to collectively pool its resources together. So when you look at all
of the individual companies that are out there, they just dont have
the budgets, if you will, to do a national campaign on their own or
even a branding or marketing campaign but the beautiful thing
about a check-off program, it is a very, very small surcharge that
then collectively and certainly over time creates a pool of money
that then can be used for education and outreach. The second is
really the public perception on solar. When you do the polling and
you ask people what do they think of solar, they want to see more
solar, they want to use more solar. My gosh, you know, you inventoryyou ask anybody in this audience behind me, I guarantee
half the people would sayor more would say I want to put solar
on my house at some point in the future. But they need to figure
out how to do that. We need to have a mechanism that allows consumers to learn more about solar, to learn that this is what solar
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looks like. It is a beautiful thing. It is elegant technology, you
know, that it has incredible environmental benefits, that although
the costs may be high up front in the long run, it does pay for itself
over time and can be a good hedge against let us just say higher
energy prices. So that type of mechanism needs to be pulled together, and what we have found is that programs like Got Milk
and the pork program and the cattlemens programs have worked.
They have worked effectively for agriculture and industries that
again are diverse, that have, you know, literally thousands of small
farmers or that have hundreds of major, you know, agricultural
providers but that collectively when they pool their resources can
get something done. I think the Department of Energy becomes a
critical entity because it allows, let us just say the government
input and coordination on research and public perception and so
what we would want to make sure is anything that we are doing
with this program is operating in a very consistent manner with
the Solar America Initiative and research and development programs that are going on in the DOE, in large part to make sure
that there is no duplication and that the federal resources are used
as effectively as possible but also to get the insight from the researchers around the country into this program.
The Chair now recognizes Ranking Member Hall. Thank you for
being here.
Mr. HALL. Thank you, maam. Thank you very much, and thanks
for a good panel here, and Rhone, good to see you again. You are
too young, but
Mr. RESCH. That is changing quickly, sir.
Mr. HALL.I think you are going to be a fast learner, and I like
your natural-gas background.
COMPARISON
OF
SOLAR ENERGY
TO
ANWR
Mr. Hayden, in your testimony you have advocated a study on

locating large-scale concentrated solar power on federal land, and
you said a single 250-megawatt facility would occupy 1,250 to 2,500
contiguous acres of land. With the hard, cold facts being that the
proposed drilling areas for ANWR is 2,000 acres, I believe that is
the correct figure, with the potential for recovering over 10 billion
barrels of oil, a possible 50 percent increase in total U.S. proven
reserves creating roughly one million jobs here in the United
States, my question is, can a solar installation produce this much
of a return on the same amount of land or more?
Mr. HAYDEN. Thank you, Congressman, for the question.
Mr. HALL. Did you write the question? You didnt send me the
question, did you? I really want a good answer.
Mr. HAYDEN. You asked the question in terms of I think productivity of the land is, and obviously we all understand that that is
a very complex topic to look at productivity of land use and so I
think there would be a very imperfect comparison between an
ANWR drilling site and a solar site. In fact, if we look at what the
challenges are to making solar actually competitive, you know, just
on shear costs, we are challenged in the sense that nature has put
together the fossil fuel resources into highly dense form and extracting it with, you know, resource extraction may not have a
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large footprint but the counterbalance, the land use of the solar
does not deplete the resource. It is working in real time to harvest
sunlight. Secondly, there is a ripple effect where the technology is
advanced into bringing the solar into play. So I would agree with
you that if you look at the footprint alone as one metric competing
against fossil fuel in a highly dense form is very challenging for
any renewable but if you look at how fossil fuel over its entire life
cycle of being replaced could compete with solar, then solar now
has an advantage because the technology is very efficient in terms
of, say, nominally 25 percent conversion of sunlight into energy
where fossil fuel has a much lower efficiency on its entire basis. So
all these things are of course arguable in how you look at it but
the solar technology does have the opportunity to deliver forever
and
Mr. HALL. They could exist and be compatible together?
Mr. HAYDEN. I think that is a very important point. We have
seen in my work of trying to combine mining uses, for example,
where they have buffer zone and land with productive uses of solar.
Mr. HALL. With us being so totally dependent upon people that
really dont trust us and we dont trust, sitting here with a fear
that China will offer them a buck a barrel more than we are paying them, do you like the comparison when they say dont disturb
little ANWR, the pristine little area of ANWR when it is 19 million
acres and we are using 2,000. Did you hear the comparison that
it would be like putting a postage stamp at the end of a tennis
court and saying that ruined the whole tennis court? The good combination of the two with solar would be the same. It doesnt hurt
the land at all.
Mr. HAYDEN. Well, I am not sure that Alaska would be a great
place for the solar equipment. It would generate pretty good during
half the year and not so good during the other half of the year, but
I think there is a lot of opportunity for hybrid composite uses of
land.
MORE
ON
Mr. HALL. But you make another point there. If it is dark half
the year, what are they hiding up there anyway?
I have one other question of Dr. Arvizu on the neutrality of the
Department of Energy on check-offs. Are there any other check-off
programs at DOE? Should there be a generic renewable check-off
program? Is that a good use of DOEs resources? I will just give you
the full barrel.
Dr. ARVIZU. Thank you. Actually there are merits to what I believe are intended in terms of the value that check-off programs
bring. I think the rationale at the Department of Energy is what
is the role of the Department and how should it endorse or otherwise encourage what we think are very appropriate education programs, and I think Mr. Resch actually articulated very nicely the
benefits and the value that educating the public has in terms of
promoting the use of renewable energy. The question is still I think
an open one inside the Department as to whether or not the Department has, you know, a role that couldnt be satisfied by perhaps closer coordination with the private sector. One of the things
we are trying to do at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
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is connect very closely with the industry and with the private sector to make sure that our goals and objectives are aligned and
these public-private partnerships provide as much benefit both to
the taxpayer as well as to the private sector. In the end, this is
about making investments. This is about having return on those investments, putting market signals where the value is extracted,
and we have got a lot of work to do in those particular areas. So
the check-off program, although it is important, isnt the highest
priority that we are working on but we see the merit and the value
of it and open for discussion as to
Mr. HALL. My time is up. If I had more time, I would ask you
if being open, you mean they are going to remain neutral on checkoff, and question, why shouldnt DOE be focused on research? And
I may write you a letter and ask you those things.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Hall, and let me also note that
in this draft legislation, no money would come directly from DOE
from the check-off. It would all come from the private sector.
The Chair recognizes Mr. McNerney.
Mr. MCNERNEY. Thank you, Mrs. Chairwoman, and I just want
to say that I am very excited about the future of solar and I applaud you for the bill. It is a nicely crafted bill.
MANUFACTURING COST
FOR
SOLAR ENERGY
You know, the real limitation for solar. You have talked about
education. Education is a limiting factor but the real limitation is
the price. I come from the wind industry and what happens in that
industry is that as we get on the manufacturing curve, the cost
goes down just out of production volume, but I am not convinced
that is the case with solar, especially with photovoltaic. So my
question I guess for Dr. Arvizu is, do you see the technology in photovoltaic and in CSP leading to lower cost with increasing volume
or again is some type of technical limitation going to prevent the
cost from coming down, and if not, could you kind of go into that
a little bit for me?
Dr. ARVIZU. Yeah, sure, and I know that Mr. Resch has something else to say as well. I would offer that the incentive programs
that have been put in place both in Germany and in Japan have
demonstrated very clearly that with these policy measures and incentives and encouraging a market which now has exponential
growth does in fact reduce the cost, and what we are seeing is that
the costs are coming down, things like balance assistance cost inverters and installation costs and things that relate to siting and
installation are all in fact now a much smaller fraction of the overall system cost than they used to be. So it does inform our research
programs because I think there is plenty of space and opportunity
to reduce costs both on what I call the business end of the technology which has to do with the conversion process from solar to
electricity, and whether that is at the cell level for crystalline silicon technology or at the module level when it is thin-film technology, we see tremendous progress being made there, and it is a
matter of a lot more volume, a lot of learning curves. Clearly firstgeneration technology is on an S curve, if you are familiar with
how technology finds its way into the marketplace, and you prob-
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ably need to jump onto second-generation technology, which is a
different S curve with different learning curves.
Mr. MCNERNEY. We are past second-generation technology with
solar photovoltaic now, arent we?
Dr. ARVIZU. Well, not in the parlance that we use. You know,
first-generation technology is the technology I started with in the
1980s and it is the staple. I sponsored this research literally in
1985 with Dick Swanson at Stanford University. It is now commercial product. Technology that we are working on in the laboratory
now is what we call second generationthin films, concentrating,
a variety of high-efficiency technologies. There is yet a third generation. That is the organic, really high efficiency, I call it revolutionary. It is maybe a few years down the road but we are right
now trying to get second generation into the marketplace. So there
is a lot of room to be had and I think what you will find is maybe
these companies are investing in second-generation technology
today.
Mr. RESCH. And Congressman, if I could just add a couple of
points in response. We have seen historically the price of solar
come down so when the incentives for solar were dropped in 1983,
the market continued. I mean, it dropped but, you know, we continued to use solar energy, and since 1983 we have seen the price of
photovoltaics come down by 90 percent. The learning curve that we
have seen is for every doubling of manufacturing capacity, we see
about a 20 percent reduction in the price of photovoltaics. So what
is really needed is a long-term stable driver for the market so that
if I am a manufacturer, I am going to scale up my production. I
mean, most of the manufacturing facilities are 20-, 30-, 40-megawatt plants. That is pretty small. We need gigawatts-scale plants,
and the only way you are going to get that is by providing a long
enough incentive so that you can make sure your investment in
that plant is actually returned. And the example I use for wind, I
think we are probably a decade behind wind. Wind has had the
production tax credit, granted on and off, but they have had the
production tax credit for 14 years. Solar has had the investment
tax credit for about 17 months. So, you know, the market is really
just starting in the United States with respect to any kind of market incentives coming from the Federal Government, so we are
hopeful we will see a long-term incentive that will spur manufacturing, then drive down costs.
TAX INCENTIVES
FOR
SOLAR ENERGY
Mr. MCNERNEY. And, you know, in wind, the tax credits had a
big impact. The initial tax credits were investment tax credits and
they caused a lot of substandard equipment to be put in the field
and it kind of hurt the industrys reputation for years and years.
What sort of tax incentive do you think would be the most effective
for solar then, given that history?
Mr. RESCH. Because solar tends to be distributed generation and
having a very high upfront cost, we found that the investment tax
credit works best. At the end of the day, the investment tax credit
isnt large enough for you to put in expensive non-operating equipment. Everything is UL listed. Everything comes with, you know,
certification. Everything has to be grid connected, and with the in-
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vestment tax credit, it still has to pay for itself in a reasonable period of time. So we are seeing the commercial segment of the marketplace, so think of Lowes, think of Home Depot, Fresh Field
stores putting solar up on their roofs where you have got an energy
manager and you have got an account watching to make sure the
system performs, very sophisticated equipment that is performing,
so the ITC works best for us.
Mr. MCNERNEY. I mean, basically what you have just said is that
the investment tax credit is probably more effective than production tax credits for solar?
Mr. RESCH. That is correct. The production tax credit isthe bottom line is yes, the ITC works better than the PTC.
Mr. MCNERNEY. Thanks for your honesty there. I am out of time.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Inglis.
TAX INCENTIVES
AND
NET METERING
OF
SOLAR ENERGY
Mr. INGLIS. Following up on Mr. McNerneys questions, what

should be more effective, some kind of tax credit or a net metering
kind of proposal?
Mr. RESCH. You really need both. Net metering allows the system to work effectively, so just to give you an example, on a day
like today, even though I am using air conditioning at my house,
I am generating excess electricity. If Jane was living next door to
me, it would be going into her house and it would be going into
Hals house as well, and what that does is, it really stabilizes the
grid. It allows utilities, if you will, although they are still going to
buy peak demand, to have less congestion, less constraint on the
distribution grid.
Mr. INGLIS. It also makes it much more attractive for me to put
into a system, right, because
Mr. RESCH. Then you wouldnt have to buy a battery backup system that would store, so it actually is a lower cost. You almost use
the grid, if you will, as your battery or as your reserve.
Mr. INGLIS. Right, and I would also have the capacity to recoup
some of my investment. I mean, we have to figure out a way to pay
for this thing, putting it on my roof, and so a tax credit is one possibility. Another possibility is net metering.
Mr. RESCH. Net metering, it differs by every state. Right now we
dont have net metering laws so what exists in Maryland is very
different from what we have in Virginia, which is very different
from what we have in D.C. And so it is very difficult from a business model to determine which one is the right one. If we had uniform net metering, that would make a very big difference, and if
you had time-of-use rates, which means that you are paying for the
price ofthe real cost of the electricity on a day like today, I guarantee Pepco as they are pulling in new demand isnt paying eight
cents per kilowatt-hour. They are probably paying 20 cents a kilowatt-hour.
MORE
ON
Mr. INGLIS. Something tells me that our friends at Energy and

Commerce would say they have jurisdiction over that, that net metering thing, but it is fun to dream about such topics. Anyhow, so
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how aboutspeaking of jurisdiction, is this a voluntary check-off or
a mandatory check-off?
Mr. RESCH. It is a mandatory check-off program that companies
then have the option of opting out and so it becomes voluntary
after it is created.
Mr. INGLIS. And how does that work?
Mr. RESCH. You would pay into it and then you have the opportunity to request a refund. So what thisthe way the structure
works, and this is a very important part, especially as the U.S.
market continues to develop is, we are importingwe may be importing more and more panels from China to avoid a free ridership
use structure of the program so that everybody pays into it initially. If they decide they dont want to support the program for
whatever reason, then they can opt out and get a reimbursement
for the money that they paid in.
Mr. INGLIS. So what free rider would not go to that extra step
of asking for a refund? Just a lazy free rider that doesnt realize
their opportunity or
Mr. RESCH. It forces them to get involved. It forces them to see
the merits of a program. It forces them to either sit on the board
or at least engage with the board as to what the program is all
about and at least they understand it so they are making a conscious decision as opposed to an ignorant, I dont want to get involved decision, and there is probably peer pressure that would
keep people to participate. I am sure that exists in agriculture too.
Mr. INGLIS. I ask this questiondoes anybody know, is this a sequential referral or something orto Energy and Commerce. Do we
have jurisdiction over it? I dont know. It is an interesting question
if we would have jurisdiction over such a mandatory check-off.
I yield to the Chair.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Inglis, when we put this legislation together,
we were obviously looking at jurisdiction. Because we had a panel
that was qualified, we thought it was important to come and have
a discussion about this because this is one of the main parts of
what would be so helpful for the industry. That is why we are still
working on that.
STORAGE
AND
EFFICIENCY
OF
SOLAR ENERGY
Mr. INGLIS. And a question for the panel is, which is more crucial
to it? Is it a storage question or the efficiency questionefficiency
of conversion? As I understand it, the solar cellsI wish I knew
how to explain it. Roscoe will explain it to us next. He has got the
next question, to explain this conversion issue and the efficiency of
it. I dont know how to express it. But we are talking a lot about
storage here and we are not talking much about the efficiency of
the conversion.
Mr. ARVIZU. Let me take a stab at that. I think it really comes
down to the economics. It really comes down to how many cents per
kilowatt-hour am I paying life cycle for the power. When you add
storage to concentrating solar power, you improve or increase the
value by a tremendous amount because, as Rhone talked about earlier, you are puttingyou are allowing there to be essentially
power generation at a time when you may in fact have peak power
use, which there is a higher value on that certainly to the utility.
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I know that in Spain there is a feed-in tariff as well and they put
a big premium on having storage, in other words, being able to
generate electricity even past the normal sunlight hours, and by
putting in the generation, the developers actually get an 18I am
sorryan 80 percent additional return on investment by putting in
the storage, so that is just in economic terms. The efficiency is important. Typically the cost is important so it is the efficiency and
a cost tradeoff so sometimes you have high efficiency, high cost,
sometimes you have low efficiency, low cost. Sometimes those are
equivalent, and if there is a tradeoff, I think you need to go back
to how many cents per kilowatt-hour life cycle, you know, all in,
all out kind of a metric to determine which one has the most
attractiveness to it.
Mr. HAYDEN. If I could jump in, there is aCongressman, there
is a diversity of technologies in the solar field which is a good characteristic of the technology space. We are going everywhere from
the photovoltaics that Rhone brought the example of to concentrating solar power, which is large scale, and if I can kind of put
the example out there of, people are very concerned about what
their price of electricity is primarily until the lights go out and
then all of a sudden they start having concern about the reliability
of electricity, and so around the world prices of electricity and reliability both vary situationally. As we start with solar today, the
primary focus outside of this proposed work is on efficiency. Everyone is looking at cost. But as solar becomes more successful, just
like wind has become more successful, then greater attention gets
paid to the reliability. So it depends on where you are in the development. First you worry about cost. Then you worry about cost plus
reliability, and I think that is what is looked at here is that we are
starting to be more realistic about solar than we were a few years
ago.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Bartlett, please.
CHARACTERIZATION
OF
SUPPORT
FOR
SOLAR ENERGY
Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. There are three groups in our country that ought to have
common cause in wanting to move away from fossil fuels to renewables, solar included, and I am wondering if those three groups
have joinedhave locked arms or are they now criticizing the other
groups premise. One is the global warming people, and of course,
after you have paid the carbon price of producing the solar panel,
there is no carbon emission in producing power. There are the national security people, who lament the fact that we are so dependent on foreign oil and to the extent we can use solar, we are going
to use less foreign oil. And there are the peak oil people who believe that although we may muddle through the global warming
and the national security, there is no muddling through peak oil.
If it is not there, it is not there. And these three groups ought to
have common cause. Have they locked arms or are they still criticizing each others premise?
Mr. RESCH. I think everyone has been very busy and focused on
their own respective issues, but having said that, there is a very
clear unification that these three issues need to be addressed in a
very similar fashion. They are not mutually exclusive. They have
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to be dealt with at the same time, and I would say that the groups
working on global warming, national security, peak oil and certainly solar, we are engaged with all three of those groups.
COMPARISON
OF
CENTRALIZED TO DISTRIBUTED SOLAR

ENERGY
Mr. BARTLETT. Well, the solutions to those problems are exactly

the same: move away from fossil fuels to sustainable renewables
and of course solar is a big one of those. If you have grid tie, what
is the advantage of a large, centralized production rather than putting it over 1,000 home rooftops? I would think that the most widelythe more widely dispersed it is, the better off it is. So why are
we focusing on these big facilities out in the desert that are a long
way from populations, and of course the further you move these
electrons over the wire, the fewer of them reach the other end of
the wire, unlike you putting a gallon of oil in the pipeline 1,000
miles away, you get a gallon of oil. You put electrons in a wire, and
if you are far enough away you get none of them out the other end
of it. So I am having trouble understanding why we are focusing
on these large, centralized productions rather than distributing
them widely over thousands of house roofs.
Mr. ARVIZU. Let me start. I think our infrastructure today is
based on a concept of big power plants, big wires, and so a lot of
it has to do with, so how do we assimilate into the infrastructure
of today. There is actually a cost issue, the larger scale and certainly in the case of concentrating solar power, one can make the
case that there is actually better economics if you aggregate large
scale, put this thing all centrally located. There is a value of distributed generation, which I think is to your point that I think we
probably miss and dont fully appreciate, and to a large degree we
kind of discriminate against distributed generation because it is
difficult to hang those onto the grid today. We do need an intelligent grid. We need a grid that can accommodate a distributed set
of generation facilities but it is more difficult today to do that. I
think ultimately we get to a point where I think distributed generation is valued at perhaps a premium as opposedbecause it allows you lots of other flexibilities. But in todays environment, central station power is what utilities like, and when you startyou
are talking about RPSs and those things as we have in Colorado.
The way you get there most quickly is large solar farms, large wind
farms, and that is the kind of thing that people are looking at. I
think ultimately we will get to, I think, the broader question that
you are asking, which is the value of distributed generation.
NET METERING
Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you. Unless you are producing more electricity this month than you use, dont you automatically have net
metering? If you take the meter out and reverse it, you run it backwards. So if youthat is why they put a seal on it, by the way,
so you cant do that. Dont you automatically have net metering
whether the power company wants it or not if you have solar panels on your roof?
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Mr. RESCH. No, you do not. It depends entirely on your meter.
If you have your standard spinning meter, the answer is yes, you
have the capability of net metering, but it is entirely dependent
upon the law of that state. Each state has different net metering
laws. In some cases you might spin it backwards and they are only
going to pay you wholesale electricity prices rather than retail electricity prices. In some cases they are going to charge you a surcharge for transmission and distribution. It differs by state, every
state.
RELIABILITY
OF
SOLAR ENERGY
Mr. BARTLETT. I have a questionwe need to standardize that,

of course, but I have a question about grid tie and reliability. I
have a wind machine I put up and I find out that it is a grid-tie
wind machine and it has to see 120 or it wont produce any electricity. As soon as it stops seeing 120, it stops producing electricity.
Now, I understand the reason for that is you dont want to electrocute the poor lineman who has come to fix the wire because you
are still pumping juice into it after it is down, but just when I need
it most, it is not there. Wouldnt you think that we would be interested in some backup wherever you have solar panels on your roof,
and shouldnt we have systems where you can now isolate yourself
from the grid and produce electricity for yourself with some storage
on site? Just when I need it most, now it is not there.
Mr. RESCH. I think you are seeing significant advancements certainly in the private sector, also the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) with respect to storage technologies so your
typical lead acid batteries, your car batteries are your best option
today. I think within a couple of years you will see some very sophisticated storage technologies at a much lower price that allow
you to do that, sir.
Mr. BARTLETT. Even if I have the storage facility, my wind machine stops working when it doesnt see 120, or 240. It just quits.
Mr. RESCH. I am afraid that is a subject for another panel. This
is just a solar group.
Mr. BARTLETT. When you talk of turning that off, I understand
the need for it. You dont want to be pumping electricity into the
wire when the lineman thinks it is dead so you are going to electrocute him. I understand that. But you need a way to isolate your
home so you still can run your freezer and have lights and so forth
when the power is off, dont you?
Dr. ARVIZU. You do, and there is power electronics that we are
now working on to solve those kinds of problems so that it is much
more user friendly. We have not really focused on those standalone power applications as effectively as we can or should have because other things have taken priority but we are working on
those.
Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Bartlett.
SOLAR WORKFORCE TRAINING PROGRAM
A couple questions for Ms. Weissman and Mr. Sarubbi. Arizona
is now the fastest-growing state in the Nation, a lot of home build-
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ing, and people are really interested obviously. They come out there
to get out of the cold and the rain and the snow and people want
to take advantage of, you know, the wonderful sunlight we have.
So in terms of this training, what kind of skill shortage do you predict in the future related to solar installation and maintenance
with this increased demand, and can this legislation address this
looming shortage? And also if the two of you would address the
question on whether or not we have communities with these training programs that have actually seen an improvement in terms of
the quality of the installers of the solar panels.
Ms. WEISSMAN. Thank you for the question, Madam Chair. I
think without a doubt, you know, what we are starting with, our
goal here is to have a strong market. In order to have a strong
market, we need to have qualified installers. We need to make sure
that consumer confidence is ensured, that you pay the money that
you are paying for a system that is installed properly and that you
dont have to come back for service calls or for fixing the initial installation. In order to get to that point, you need training to make
sure that we have a good installer population as well as good product to put out on the roof or in the field. We are certainly finding
that those installers that go through the North American Board of
Certified Energy Producers (NABCEP) certification program are
demonstrating a higher level of quality of installation. Now, that
does not mean that people who are not NABCEP certified are not
qualified. I dont want to imply that. But we are finding that having to go through the NABCEP credentialing process really takes
a hard look at some of the most important issues including familiarity with the national electrical code, making sure thatyou
know, understanding orientation, understanding attachment to the
roof, understanding wiring, understanding all the different major
tasks and subtasks that are necessary to do a competent job so that
we are finding that what the NABCEP certification program is
doing is not only certifying and making sure that we have qualified
workers but we are making sure that the training is set to those
standards to make sure that they know what they are doing, and
I think that what NABCEP has done in addition to elevating the
workforce, it has also increased the need for good training and education. And we get calls all the time, we get e-mails all the time,
where can I get training so I can become NABCEP certified. So
what we are seeing is that not only is the credential a great signal
to consumers but it is also increasing the need for better training.
Mr. SARUBBI. If I could add to my colleague Jane here, New York
State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) has
tied their incentive package to people who are certified, NABCEP
certified. So at least the homeowners who are reaping the benefits
of this incentive are at least assured that they are getting it from
a certified installer, so that is helping improve the standards. And
as Jane mentioned, we are getting a lot of phone calls for training
in Hudson Valley with the sponsorship of the Interstate Renewable
Energy Council (IREC) as well as NYSERDA are doing national
electrical code training seminars, you know, for the electrical inspectors out there but also building inspectors. We are doing specific training in that area, bringing as many building inspectors
into the fold and the type of solar systems that they are going to
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have to go out and approve in the community. So that in itself is
helping the standards increase alone. And it is amazing. We had
a web site put up just a few months ago as we were getting our
solar program off the ground and the amount of hits that we are
getting on that web site, you know, showing the interest, you know,
from the community out there is tremendous and I am getting
nervous from the amount of e-mails that I am receiving on a daily
basis from people who are interested in the training, either to receive the training or homeowners who are interested in actually
have somebody who is certified, you know, to be able to install it,
so they are coming to Hudson Valley. That is where they looking
for that information because they are going out in the web: who
can I get to come install a nice solar system on the house that I
know it is going to be a credibly installed system and it is going
to beyou know, meet all the standards of industry. So we are seeing that growth.
Ms. GIFFORDS. The Chair recognizes Mr. Udall.
MORE
ON
SOLAR WORKFORCE TRAINING
Mr. UDALL. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to come and

hear from the panel today. This is an area, as you all know, of
great fascination but also great potential. I also wanted to show my
solidarity with Dr. Arvizu, who heads up the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, which is in part located in my district in Colorado. This is such an exciting time for us I think as a country and
as a broad industry. In Colorado we recently passed Amendment
37, which put a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in place for the
State of Colorado, and I took advantage of that opportunity. I now
have a three and one half kilowatt system on my roof. It is fun to
make electricity and at the right time of day to go out and see the
meter running backwards and knowing that you are not only reducing your own bill but you are putting some power back on the
grid. So I want to thank the Chairwoman for holding this really,
really important hearing and giving us the opportunity as Members
of Congress not only to learn more about what the potential is but
also what we can do to help provide greater incentives. Having arrived late, I dont know all the questions that have been asked but
I am curious, given the great team that came to install the system
on my home, what sorts of stories that the panel has heard both
positive and in some cases negative about workers without training
attempting to install solar panels. I dont know who would be best
to speak to that question. Ms. Weissman?
Ms. WEISSMAN. Thank you, Congressman. Well, there are always
stories to tell, and I think that we were finding problems. We are
seeing the problems. You know, shading is a big issue. Certainly
in some parts of the country with, you know, the trees, a small tree
today could be a big tree tomorrow and so are seeing that those,
you know, installers who are not properly trained are not, you
know, realizing that shading is a real issue, and if they dont see
the tree and the leaves and even the trees in the winter when
there are no leaves in certain parts of this country that this will
be a problem. Most states do require that a licensed electrician do
the final hookup of the system, and we think that is great and that
is how it should be, but what we are also finding is that different
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trades who know their trade very well may not know solar very
well, and so certainly training is very important on the actual, you
know, the characteristics of solar and the technology and what is
needed to put up a good system. So what we are finding and you
know, what we are seeing now too with more incentives going on
both at the State level and the federal level, is what we want to
prevent is any guy or gal with a truck and a ladder to think they
can put this stuff up on the roof. That is not true. You know, it
is going to be a problem. So that even those people that may feel
that they are doing a good job may in fact not be. It was interesting, when we started NABCEP, the certification program, we
had a lot of the old timers say, you know, I am not going to take
a test, I know what I have been doing, I have been doing this for
20 years, grandfather me in, and we said absolutely not; we are not
going to give you a seal of approval. You know, if you know what
you are doing, you are going to pass this four-hour exam and, you
know, that will show proof that we can give you the certification
mark. So we are pretty serious in terms of making sure that if we
are going to certify somebody, they know what they are doing and
prevent some of the stories that we have heard or that we have
seen, some of the mistakes that have been made, some of the stupid mistakes that have been made out in the field. What we want
to make sure is customers are going to get, you know, a well-run
system that is going to last a long time.
Mr. RESCH. And just to add one other comment. The IBEW has
done, I think an excellent job in training in certain key markets
but starting to go national training their members to certify and
install solar systems in an appropriate manner. So I think that
when you start to see that shift where you have large trade unions,
where you have, you know, large roofer groups starting to reach
out and train and educate and, if you will, give them new skill sets,
I think that is a fundamental sea change in the capability of installers going forward. Certainly linking with Janes program at
NABCEP is absolutely critical as well.
Ms. WEISSMAN. But if I can just add onto Mr. Reschs comment,
the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and
the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee
(NJATC) do sit on the board of directors of the North American
Board of Certified Energy Practitioners so we have been very involved with the union from day one. In addition, the NJATC, the
training arm for the IBEW, just published a fantastic textbook on
photovoltaic systems which I know that a lot of the community colleges are beginning to use as their main learning tool.
Mr. UDALL. I see my time has expired. If the Chairwoman would
indulge me for 30 more seconds?
Speaking to your comment about shading not only with leaves on
trees but the tree branches themselves, that was one of the processes we had to go through. We had a big old cottonwood tree that
was blocking at certain times of the day the system, and I found
out in the process of installing the system that if you have any
shading on any part of the system, it affects the overall system in
very dramatic ways. So we had to make the decision. It was almost
like letting go of your firstborn child, taking down this tree, but I
was convinced that taking down the tree was worth the pain be-
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cause of the benefits that you accrue, and I was told that taking
down the tree but at the same time installing the system was the
equivalent of planting 100 more trees. So I hope that sales job was
accurate. This was a learning process for myself and my family.
I thank the Chairwoman for her indulgence and for holding this
very, very important hearing. These technologies and what our economic future will involve. It is also about energy security and about
environmental benefits, so this is very, very important. Thank you.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Inglis.
Mr. HAYDEN. Could I add to some of those comments, Madam
Chair? Some comments have been made including yours just now
which I would like to kind of try tounderstanding though that
the issues that we are running into about the shading, the tree,
distributedpoint up that there is need for more than one piece of
the solar solution and the distributed solution that has a lot of public popularity has its limits that are important for us to overcome
to get a large percentage of our energy to come from solar. For example, we have our solar test site in Tempe, Arizona, and I can tell
you that the college students that live in the condos and the urban
area, they do not have the option of having solar on their roof. I
live in Tempe, and even though I work on solar, my solar panels
are with APSs site at Prescott, Arizona, and the reason is, as an
engineer I know that they are far more productive than they would
be on my roof, and that is important to me. If I am going to see
a lot of our resources put into a very important solar panel and
also find storage options, I dont want to see them wasted in an imperfect application. So to address some of the points made, there
isabout 85 percent of the energy that comes from a Four Corners
power plant makes it to the customer in Phoenix. The highest fraction of that energy goes over the wires. The wires are very good
at delivering energy. So even though we do see the value of rooftop
solar, it certainly wont get us to the 40 percent-type number that
solar I think could get if we are allowed to build larger facilities
that are more efficient, bring the power in to where it is needed,
and secondly, to bring in the storage technologies that would allow
the utility to help provide that backup power that otherwise these
panels cant do on their own. So it underscores I think one of the
values of this discussion is that it is not a one size, one solution
fits all. If we want mainstream America to use solar, we have got
to make it easy. We cant just make it for us environmentally motivated folks to be the only ones using solar. Thank you.
EFFICIENCY
OF
SOLAR ENERGY
Mr. INGLIS. A follow-up on that. If the efficiency of the conversion

were higher, it would make the distributed more attractive, right?
Mr. HAYDEN. No, not at all. The efficiency is a good parameter
but the fluctuation is the issue that talks about reliability. In fact,
when we build a project of any size, we have to look at the reliability on customers. The Congressman talked about the wind system tripping. That also affects things like your power electronics,
manufacturing businesses, power quality. So if you do have an efficient system that is good for its economics but there will be interruptions from clouds. There will be interruptions for other reasons
and we have to match the load.
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STORAGE
FOR
SOLAR ENERGY
Mr. INGLIS. Which brings me to the other question which is

about the storage issue which, from what I have been hearing this
morning, is crucial. It seems that the section of the billsections
of the bill dealing with that are relatively brief. Is there something
else we should be saying in those sections about storage besides
what we are saying here?
Mr. HAYDEN. We discussed that before. We provided testimony
on that very subject because we see more than just the thermal
being possible storage solutions. The thermal is worth mentioning
because in the case of certain technologies, thermal is very directly
used but there is other proven large-scale solar technology for storageI am sorrystorage technologies such as compressed air energy storage, other things that while we are all waiting and working on the new batteries, there are things that can be done sort of
on a regional basis.
Mr. INGLIS. I suppose these battery breakthroughs really could
also be theI mean, there are a number of things that if they
broke could make it so that thereif we had the breakthroughs in
a various number of areas, you would have wide scalemore use
of the resource, right?
Dr. ARVIZU. There is no question about that. Storage has continued, as I call it, to be the Achilles heel of renewable energy in general. If we just had a better storage systemwe have been working
on batteries for a very long time, literally, you know, decades. And
progress is slow. Progresswe are making progress but progress is
slow, and I think ultimately, you know, converting wind and the
other intermittent type of resources to some sort of energy carrier
like hydrogen or compressed air, whatever it might be, is really
going to change the economic equation considerably. I know I sit
on the National Science Board and we are doing things foractually trying to provide power at the South Pole while we are doing
some fairly energy-intensive experiments, and what are looking for
stand-alone systems that are not polluting, because right now we
have gotwe are polluting in the southern hemisphere because of
all the diesel fuel that we are using down there. And we are looking for, you know, some of these advanced concepts that down
there you would pay an exorbitant amount of money for that particular application and there are some thingswe are looking at
how can you convert wind energy to hydrogen and to use it when
you essentiallywhen the wind doesnt blow or solar energy to hydrogen or a variety of other technologies and things, and I think
ultimately you need to look at that whole systems architecture. So
you need to look at them in the broadest context. You know, I am
very bullish on the fact of zero-energy buildings. We use more energy in buildings than in most any other application that we have
and so the distributed value on a building that is efficiently designed with its own power generation source and its own storage
has great value and benefit. At the systems level, is it still a little
bit costly although we are making huge progress and we have got
examples of Habitat for Humanity homes that generate more energy that they consume, and so it can be done on a modest building, and it is a matter of changing a variety of things. It is what
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we talked about earlier, bring the price signal where the decisions
are being made. You know, construction for buildings is not
incentivized to save energy. And so all those things need to be part
of the package and I think we need to look more holistically at the
whole issue.
CONVERSION
TO
HYDROGEN
Mr. INGLIS. To the objection I hear, and when I talk about hydrogen, about why convert, just out of curiosity, it is not exactly a subject of this hearing but why convert to hydrogen in those cases you
talked about, particularly at the Poles where Dr. Bartlett and I
saw the same thing you are talking about, diesel fuel being brought
in belching out the smokestacks when we got a lot of wind and a
solar there.
Dr. ARVIZU. The why convert part is because it really is an elegant solution. You dont pollute anything, obviously. You convert
you know, you change water to hydrogen and oxygen and then you
use the energy and it converts back to water. It is very costly at
this point and that is the reason that we dont do it more, you
know, uniformly elsewhere. But in that particular environment, the
cost that you pay for the energy of transporting fossil fuel down
there is exorbitant and there is just no reason why you wouldnt
in terms of economics do the thing that is less environmentally insulting than the other thing.
Mr. INGLIS. Thank you.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Hall.
Mr. HALL. Thank you.
MORE
ON
Mr. Resch, you know, as in some other fields, global warming, for
instance, everybody talks about the cost and the fears and the projections and predictions and all but most of those people that are
recommending that we just go all out on global warming fail to talk
about cost. They shy away from that. They dont want to talk about
who has to go by the cash register at a time when China is polluting on an increasing ratio with coal. So I will ask you something. How about the industry? Has anyone expressed any concern
about planning the assessment, and will this result in increased
cost to the consumer? I dont see how you can keep from it, but you
would have to answer that. And how much would the assessment
be and how is it going to be done, case-by-case basis or individually?
Mr. RESCH. Thank you for your question, and with respect to the
check-off program, I think there is initially concern about what is
the right way to structure it, where do you assess within the solar
stream, how far upstream, how far downstream, do you assess at
the installer or do you assess at the manufacturer, should it include all equipment, should it just include PV modules, what about
solar water heating. There are a lot of questions and I think good
questions that need to be resolved and I think the way this program is structured is, it has flexibility, that all the rules are not
set in stone, that there is an opportunity to adjust the rate or determine an appropriate rate that would actually produce an appro-
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priate amount of money that, you know, first the industry is willing to spend and raise and that it doesnt penalize the consumer
or penalize the manufacturer to the greatest extent. So, you know,
I would say we dont have all the answers but part of that is the
discussion with the Department of Energy and getting the board
together to determine what is the right level and just make sure
all the right players are involved. I mean, we have a couple of suggestions in our written testimony for improvements to the program
and I think what you will find is that most or all of the manufacturers will agree that what is needed is a campaign along these
lines. They may disagree on timing when that program should be
in place but all of them want to participate and make sure they
have a voice in the development of that program.
Mr. HALL. Well, we got airliners that, all except Southwest, are
going broke flying full and going broke because of fuel and they
have to turn to the consumer. You might hear in the city of Washington the cab drivers I think at midnight last night increased
their minimum fee to $2.50 instead of $1.50. That has gone up almost 50 percent. How are we going to keep the assessment from
going to the consumer? Why wouldnt it?
Mr. RESCH. Well, there is two ways to look at it, one of which
is that as there is more competition, there is a lot more pressure
on the price downward, and when you look at the oil and gas industry other than propane, they shy away from any kind of structure along these lines because it actually goes back to the producer,
that the costs are passed back to the producer, not onto the consumer because the consumer is only willing to spend so much, and
what we have really seen in the solar industry in the last couple
of years is increased competition, increased competition to put
cheaper panels. They are scaling up manufacturing. Prices are
coming down. You know, feedstock materials are starting to increase in supply and again putting downward pressure on the
price. It is unclear. I mean, I think if you were to step back with
an economist, you would have onetwo economists, one of them
would say it is going to be passed on to the consumer, the other
would say that the manufacturers will absorb the cost. But I think
what we are looking for, you know, is a level of assessment that
is small enough so that it is not a major hit on either side, the
manufacturers side or the installers side but yet collectively as
this industry grows, we can use those resources to educate the public on the benefits of solar energy.
Mr. HALL. To be continued?
Mr. RESCH. To be continued. Absolutely.
Mr. HALL. Let me ask the panel, if I have some more time here.
The language of the bill provides for criminal penalties for release
of information obtained under the authority of the Act to any
agency or officer of the United States for any purpose other than
implementation of this Act. What information do you think they
are seeking to protect here? What is being protected, and do you
agree that criminal penalties are necessary?
Mr. RESCH. Well, I think a lot of it is confidential business information and, you know, I think that part of that provision you are
referring to goes back to the hey, you know, we need you to open
your books in order for us to make sure that what you are report-
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ing to us is accurate if you are participating in this program and
that if that information leaks out-a lot of it is CBI that you would
want to make sure that companies are comfortable with the government looking into their books with respect to confidential business information, if I am referring to the section of the bill that you
are.
Mr. HALL. It is a mandatory program?
Mr. RESCH. It is a mandatory program that companies can opt
out of.
Mr. HALL. And it is pretty strong language, any agency or officer, that provides for criminal penalties. That is pretty strong. Do
you agree that criminal penalties are necessary?
Mr. RESCH. I think that what
Mr. HALL. You may not have an opinion.
Mr. RESCH. This program is modeled after the existing agriculture programs and, you know, what I would say is, certainly we
can discuss the right way to ensure compliance and maybe that is
an overly aggressive way and maybe the way it works in agriculture shouldntyou know, we shouldnt be doing it in energy.
But I would say this is modeled after existing programs. So it
seems to have worked previously but certainly there is opportunities to modify it if necessary.
Mr. HALL. My time is up. There is a lot more we could discuss,
but I can do that with you by letter. I thank you.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Hall.
MORE
ON
And Mr. Resch, just to clarify, how many other programs are out
there that we are looking at? I know we talked about milk, we
talked about beef.
Mr. RESCH. There are 17 programs right now between energy
and agriculture that are promotion programs along these lines.
Ms. GIFFORDS. And have there been problems with companies
and confidentiality and issues like this in the past that we know
of?
Mr. RESCH. I would have to get back to you on that. I dont have
specific examples. I imagine that they are consistently written in
the same manner in order to address concerns that have been
raised in the past but I am not entirely sure.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Hall, we will get back to you on that because
I am curious as well.
Mr. Bartlett.
Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you very much. I would just like to note
that if there were an unending succession of ANWRs and we were
willing to pay the price for sequestering the CO2, we wouldnt need
to be talking about solar, would we? But the reality is that there
is not an unending succession of ANWRs. I have ten kids, 15
grandkids and two great-grandkids, and wouldnt it be nice if I left
them a little energy for their future, which is one of the reasons
I wont vote to drill in ANWR until they commit to me they are
going to use all the energy from ANWR to invest in alternatives
because today we have no surplus energy to invest in alternatives
or oil wouldnt be $69 a barrel, right?
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I would also like to note that unless you are making hydrogen
from a non-fossil fuel, using hydrogen probably results in a larger
carbon footprint than not using it unless you are going to use it in
a fuel cell, which we dont yet have because you will always get less
energy from the less hydrogen that you get from the energy source
in which you produced it. If that is a fossil fuel, obviously burning
hydrogen in a reciprocating engine is going to leave a larger carbon
footprint than if you hadnt used the original fuel. Just noting how
we are creatures of habit, I was at the South Pole twice in the last
five years. For six months the sun shines all day, every day and
the wind never stops blowing, and we create essentially all of our
power there from flown-in diesel. Now, is that dumb? We are really
creatures of habit, arent we?
You know, the sun is 93 million miles away. I have a place in
West Virginia. My friends are amazed that I make ice from the
sun. I have a Sun Frost refrigerator hooked up. But I put my first
solar panels on the roof. I have 153 acres. They said, why in the
devil are you doing that. You know, the sun is 93 million miles
away. If I put it on the roof or on the ground beside the building,
it makes no difference as far as the sun is concerned. It is very
much cheaper and easier to put it down on the ground. So unless
you are in a subdivision and have got to put it on your roof, dont
put it on your roof. It is a whole lot easier to maintain on the
ground. A big cost, a big part of the cost of putting in these solar
panels is just the carpentry or whatever you want to call it to
mount these things, and you dont need to have some guy do that,
you know. The Home Depot has a great slogan, You can do it. We
can help. We need to be telling these people how to mount it. I
dont have any problem with a certified electrician hooking up the
power. Wiring them and hooking it is a very small part of the cost
of putting them in, and you dont need to have somebody come put
it in. If you can change a faucet washer, you can install solar panels. It really isnt that tough. So I would just encourage you, you
dont need to further increase the cost of putting these in. You can
do it; we can help, and we need some help out there like, you know,
you dont put it where it is going to be shaded and so forth.
MORE
ON
STORAGE
FOR
SOLAR
Let me ask you a question about storage. Isnt it true that for
these large facilities, it is hard to beat the battery that never fails,
which isunless you have to replace the pump or the turbine. Why
dont we just pump water uphill and then let it flow back when we
need the energy? Isnt that about as good a battery as we can get
with about as high efficiency as any battery we have got?
Mr. HAYDEN. Simple answer, yes.
Mr. BARTLETT. Yes. If the project permits it, why shouldnt we
be doing that everywhere?
Mr. HAYDEN. Well, everywhere including desert climates where
water isArizona is an example where it is done today on hydro
plants that exist. Creating a new hydro plant just for that purpose
would require a high reservoir, a low reservoir, water, et cetera. So
those are the practical issues. I do recognize pumped hydros being
a very excellent efficient solution when you can do it. Compressed
air is another one that we are looking at it because it has similar
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favorable attributes, different implementation. But in terms of Arizona as an example, most of the lakes, water flows downhill so
there are those places where it has been done, Roosevelt Lake and
others, I believe, but I think that in terms of creating new lakes
just for that purpose, that would be quite a challenge on the water
side.
Mr. BARTLETT. There are a lot of places where the topography
and the water available
Mr. HAYDEN. If I may, I know that those discussions have been
taken to the dam operators and they have had challenges in terms
of their most economical operation of that asset. So you would have
to take that question to some of the existing dam operators.
Mr. BARTLETT. I would just like to note that if you dont have
electricity, the thing you miss the most is lights, and it is very
easy, and I would encourageI would hope that we would encourage people if they are putting in a stand-alone system that they
use direct current lights. You dont need an inverter. It is really
simple. You have a solar panel and you have lights, and if they are
direct current, they work, and there is really nothing to fail. So the
first thing you miss in your home when the electricity goes off is
the lights go off, and if you are looking at those things that make
life comfortable, you know, being able to see and have lights is very
essential, and that is pretty much a failsafe system if you have direct current, DC. If you have 120 volts, you got that really complicated inverter full ofI dont trust computers in these little
things. They may or may not work. The lead acid battery works all
the time, doesnt it? And you dont need anything in between the
battery and your 12-volt or 24-volt or 48-volt valise on your fluorescent lights, do you? It is a very efficient use of electricity and very
failsafe, and I think more people ought to be encouraged to put
those in, and that is so you can see your way around the house
when the lights go out, right?
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Bartlett.
WATER USE
FOR
CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER
We dont have a tremendous amount of time left and I would like

the panel to focus a few minutes on this issue of water, and Mr.
Hayden, perhaps Dr. Arvizu as well. You know, obviously out west
we do have some real issues in terms of just not having the water.
We have got 25 million users on the Colorado River right now. We
are in a drought. We have increased demands of the current water
supply that we do have. So I am interested in terms of the requirements for a CSP plant. Can they be built to use air cooling instead
of water cooling enabled to eliminate the water requirements, and
are water constraints an obstacle to the wider adoption in your
opinion of CSP technologies?
Mr. HAYDEN. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, water is an issue.
It is one of the issues that is on the sequence of working through
the biggest challenge of cost just to get us started which fortunately, in my years of working this, I see a lot of progress right
now so I am happy to hear that we are starting to look at the
water, meaning that we are serious about this moving forward, and
it is absolutely an issue. The present day CSP systems use water
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for cooling to about the extent that a conventional power plant
does, and therefore it is acceptable in some views but we would like
to do better. Obviously a lot of farmland is getting converted for
residential largely because of water so the water situation is not
static. It is becoming more of a pressure. So in every sense if we
want to use more of this energy technology, reducing water use is
important. In terms of the present-day designs, there is something
called air cooling where they replace the water evaporation cycle
with fans and just move the air through a radiator-type structure.
That can be done today but it wasnt the economical solution for
the present-day installations. It is available today but we would
like our cake and eat it too. We would like it to be available and
also more efficient and less costly. Secondly, I will mention that
other concentrating solar power technologies including concentrated photovoltaics, dish engine technologies dont use water
cooling at all. So when we again talk about CSP, usually we are
talking about the trough technology with water cooling but there
are other technology solutions that will compete with the trough
and so a trough needs to try to move itself forward with water reduction and at the same time these other technologies might come
forward and be low-water-use technologies. In fact, we sometimes
notice how little water is valued on a dollar basis and yet how
much it is valued on an emotional basis, and that sort of contradiction is what we are grappling here with on its application with
solar.
Dr. ARVIZU. If I could add just a little bit on that. Absolutely, I
think we have been looking at technologies that really dont use,
you know, any water that is not self-contained in the system. You
know, for a long time, I can remember in the 1980s we looked at
a variety of gas-cooled reactors. We looked atwe have actually
the best heat transfer medium for these concentrating thermal systems is typically a molten salt or something that has got a very
high specific heat to it. So you dont have really a contained water
need for the actual, you know, working end of those particular
plants and there are ways to get around having to use any water
if you really chose to do that, but it is a matter of economics. It
is a matter of pushing the technology and making it most cost-effective. And there is in fact as Mr. Hayden says this whole idea
that you can put concentrating photovoltaics. The biggest problem
with these concentrating systems, as I mentioned in my testimony,
is the upfront capital cost, and one of the things that we are looking at is how can you reduce that cost dramatically in some of
these concentratingtroughs in fact are some things that are being
pioneered right now in Australia that are I think very cost-effective
and also can be done in a manner that is very, very miserly relative to the water use. So this is not a problem that I believe is
in any way a showstopper or couldnt be overcome but for the will
and the R&D program that goes along with trying to stand up with
some pilots to make sure that it operates the way we think it ought
to.
CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER
Ms. GIFFORDS. A couple other questions, because I know we are
running out of time. First of all, APS, Mr. Hayden, I understood
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took 14 years to construct the solar trough, 14 years, I think. Why
was the hiatus so long, and is that something that we can learn
from as well?
Mr. HAYDEN. Well, the proper way to look at that 14 years is,
no one had done it in 14 years and we chose to pursue that, and
I will give you a pragmatic answer. I have been going to DOE
meetings for all my career and having the solar industry run up
and say buy 100-megawatt power plant and everything will be fine.
Now, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars when
they do that and we under a regulated structure do not have the
opportunity to just spend hundreds of millions of dollars that is not
least cost so what we chose to do was to challenge those solar companies to make a small-scale plant just to prove that they could get
on their feet again because the present regime of folks making the
trough is not the same folks that built it decades ago and they actually needed to give a new start. So literally when they built our
first megawatt, it was all of a sudden kind of a deer in the headlights moment when oh, you mean we really have to build this
thing, and they had fundamental decisions such as were they going
to use aluminum or were they going to use steel, who were they
going to get their tubes from. So fortunately, even though one onemegawatt is a very small project, it gave them the opportunity to
start getting it together, and then when they had the 64-megawatt
opportunity in Nevada, they had momentum. All I can say that we
did was, we broke the ice. We didnt have dollars available under
our regulated structure to buy hundreds of megawatts but we did
have the dollars available to break the ice.
MORE
ON
SOLAR WORKFORCE TRAINING
Ms. GIFFORDS. Before I turn to Mr. Inglis, Mr. Resch, if you could
address Mr. Bartletts comments aboutand I know he had to
leaveabout just anyone being able to kind of put on these solar
panels andI mean, I am not an expert but it soundswhat I
have seen is pretty complicated stuff.
Mr. RESCH. There is two points I will make there. First is that
Home Depot does sell solar panels in New Jersey and in California,
and if you wanted to go out and by a solar system, you could do
it. Say you have a garden shed and you wanted to put lights up
in the back, very simple, you know, something you could do. You
are dealing with electricity so you have got to be smart about it
and so you dont want anybodyyou dont want your kids running
out there and playing around with it. I mean, it is electricity. But
when you really do step back and understand electricity, it is fairly
understandable. Now, he is referring to a direct current, a DC,
versus what we actually use in our homes, which is alternating
current, so it gets a little more complicated. You have more equipment. I decided to use a contractor to install the solar system in
my house because I dont want to climb up on a roof, first of all.
Second of all, I dont really understand electricity all that well in
the sense of how I install it in my home, and just like anything
else, I went out and I got three bids, and so when Congressman
Udall was talking about shading and all the rest, well, you know,
there is a little bit of the buyer beware. You want to get three bids,
just like you would for any system. When you install an air condi-
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tioning system in your house, a hot water heater, you are going to
get a couple of bids and then find out which one is the best and
which one seems the most knowledgeable. So I would tend to say
that we are not quite there with the technology to say it is plug
and play, any consumer could go out and just quickly install it on
their house with respect to photovoltaics. I think we will get there
at some point in time. We are not there yet.
Mr. SARUBBI. Can I just add to that? Teaching electricity in my
entire career and former electrician, I would be a little nervous to
know that homeowners were going to go out on a regular basis and
install systems, you know, when we talk about grounding needs,
when we start talking about liability because the first time there
is a fire at somebodys house, the thing you hear most often is that
it came from electricity, it was an electrical problem. So we certainly dont want to create that environment with the solar industry where people are going to Home Depot and not that they cant
buy that small type of system but if I am going to be putting a
3KW, seven or even 10KW system on my house, I want to know
that it is installed by a certified, you know, company that I have
got longevity with that system and so I would be a little leery
about moving in that direction at this point in the industry. And
DC in reference to AC, converters today are so much more efficient
and reliable, you know, that I dont see the conversion of moving
to DC, you know, in our house, direct current power and retrofitting all our lights for that, you know, environment, as opposed
to staying with alternating current just doesnt make sense at this
point.
MORE
ON
Mr. INGLIS. Just one quick follow-up. We were talking earlier

about the reporting requirements and the disclosure of information,
and did anybody want to make any further comments about that?
Is there something about the disclosure of information that was of
concern in previous programs, these 17 programs?
Dr. ARVIZU. I am not exactly sure what the major issues were.
We are aware of some lawsuits that have been brought against the
U.S. Department of Agriculture based on those programs. It kind
ofit highlights the fact that there is a liability issue or risk that
comes along with monitoring or administering one of these programs, and I dont have the details of that but I would suggest that
there is a lot more to beto explore regarding what assumption of
liabilities there are in administering the program.
Mr. INGLIS. I have no further questions, Madam Chair.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Before bringing this hearing to a close, I just
want to thank all of our panelists and I really want to thank you
for the time and the effort that went into preparing for your testimony today and for helping to craft this legislation. I also want to
thank the other Members for being here and asking some great
questions. I learned a lot and I hope that Members did and the
general public as well.
The record will be held open for additional statements from the
Members and for answers to any follow-up questions the Subcommittee may ask the witnesses. The witnesses are excused and
the hearing is now adjourned. Thank you all very much.
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[Whereupon, at 12:00 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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Appendix 1:
ANSWERS
TO
POST-HEARING QUESTIONS
(75)
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ANSWERS
TO
Responses by Herbert T. Hayden, Solar Technology Coordinator, Arizona Public

Service Company, Phoenix, Arizona
As the Solar Technology Coordinator for APS, my field of activity has been on the
technological assessment and advancement of solar technologies. I am pleased to
offer my views on the technical topics such as thermal energy storage, solar integration to regional transmission grids, and reduction of water consumption as these
issues relate to larger scale solar technologies such as concentrated solar projects
(CSP).
However, there are other aspects of the proposed legislation pertaining to workforce training and the promotion of solar power anti certification, which are policies
more directly impacting manufacturers and installers of photovoltaic systems (PV),
and other solar-related equipment. Those questions would be better answered by
those individuals who are more familiar with the public policy concerns associated
with the development of the solar industries. My answers in those areas are limited
and I respectfully defer to others who may feel qualified to address those issues.
Questions submitted by Representative Ralph M. Hall
Q1. Are you familiar with the Institute of Sustainable Power? Do you feel comfortable having them run a certification program? What type of a fee would you
envision would be required for them to certify workforce training programs?
A1. I am not familiar with the Institute of Sustainable Power
Q2. Have you reviewed the legislation being proposed here today? Do you think it
makes sense to create two additional layers of bureaucracy for the Secretary of
Energy to promote solar power or do you feel it would be easier to just give DOE
a grant to promote solar power? Please explain.
A2. We believe the objectives of the legislation regarding thermal storage and CSP
are appropriate and productive. I have not reviewed the referenced legislation in regards to the education and promotion of solar power, and I do not have an opinion
on those aspects.
Q3. Do you think solar power needs to be promoted in order to be successful as an
energy resource?
A3. I believe that solar power is a proven energy technology, however the costs of
solar are still too high for it to compete as an energy resource of substantial scale.
Solar costs can be further reduced as the technology advances and matures, and incentives for the use of solar will allow that to happen more quickly. Promotion of
the benefits of solar power can also encourage the use of solar.
Q4. Do you support the language in the bill that requires private companies to open
their books and records to Members of the Board for inspection?
A4. I have no opinion on this question.
Q5. The language of the bill provides for criminal penalties for release of information obtained under the authority of the Act to any agency or officer of the
United States for any purpose other than implementation of this Act. What information do you believe this language is seeking to protect? Do you agree criminal penalties are necessary?
Q6. The language of section 9 requires the continuation of the solar promotion board
and committee should be contingent upon a vote by the manufacturers and importers. Would you support a referendum prior to creation of the Board and
Committee? Why or why not?
Q7. What enforcement by the Secretary of Energy do you envision that might warrant a civil penalty for noncompliance under section 10 of this bill? Is this section necessary?
Q8. What type of investigation do you believe it would be necessary for the Secretary
of Energy to conduct under Section 11 of this bill?
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Q9. How will your organization benefit from this legislation?
A9. APS, as a public utility with a strong commitment to the development of renewable energy resources would derive benefits from a comprehensive energy bill that
a) provided incentives for utility use of solar, such as the ITC, and b) aided in technical areas such as thermal energy storage, reduced water consumption, and the integration of CSP facilities with regional transmission grids.
Q10. What kind of yearly revenues does the solar industry have which could be used
in a promotion program as envisioned by the legislation?
A10. I do not have the knowledge of the facts pertaining to solar industry revenues.
Q11. Where does each of you see solar power as a part of the Nations energy mix
by 2015 by percentage if this bill is enacted?
A11. Solar is the largest renewable energy resource in Arizona. If you add the possibility of integrating solar energy into the regional transmission grid and improving
its availability with storage or other methods, the contribution of solar energy in
sunny regions like the southwest could help states in the southwest and west reach
their overall renewable energy goals, which currently range from 10 percent to 20
percent or more. I am not in a position to determine how this would translate to
the Nations energy mix as a whole, where other renewable energy resources may
also contribute a substantial share of the Nations energy mix. However, from a
technical perspective, the intermittent nature of solar energy resources requires
utilities to rely heavily upon conventional energy resources to meet customer demands and to protect infrastructure. If technology is developed to allow for solar energy storage or other means of making the output of a solar plant firm and reliable,
this would make solar energy more viable for a greater share of the Nations energy
mix.
Q12. What is your view of cost sharing of the training programs between the states
and Federal Government?
Q13. Are the unions opposed to the training provisions in the bill?
A13. I have no information on this topic.
Q14. Is the Draft discussion draft duplicative of any current programs? If so which
ones? What are the metrics that will evaluate success of the training or solar
programs?
A14. I have no information on this topic.
Q15. Recognizing the scarce resources of the Federal Government, would you rather
see tax dollars go to innovative technologies or advertising solar power?
A15. From my perspective as a technologist, federal support for innovative technologies is critical. However, the question about whether advertising is a more effective way to use tax dollars is outside of the purview of my work and is an issue
better answered by others.
Q16. In your opinion why does the contribution of solar power remain relatively low?
Is it ultimately due to the cost?
A16. Cost is certainly a major reason the contribution of solar power in the overall
energy mix remains low today. In addition, most solar technologies generate electricity only when the sun is shining so other sources of electricity are necessary to
provide firm electric power in response to customer demand. For those solar power
technologies that include storage capability, cost continues to be a factor since the
cost of storage adds to the overall cost of the infrastructure. Both issues will need
to be addressed for solar to become a larger part of the electric energy mix for any
electric power utility.
Q17. The Thermal Energy Storage Section of the discussion draft is quite brief and
your testimony seems to focus on the need for a great deal of research and development into the area of thermal energy storage. What elements do you feel
should be addressed in a thermal energy storage research and development program?
A17. As to the elements that should be addressed in a thermal research and development program, the key is that the market related to this technology responds to
demonstrated solutions. Therefore, even existing technology concepts could be more
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rapidly accepted as economically feasible if there was a commercial demonstration,
and one that exhibited favorable cost, environmental and reliability features. Studies and lab validations are an essential first step. However, to attract the kind of
up-front capital needed for a commercial project, a significant demonstration with
an ongoing field operation may prove necessary to satisfy investors.
Q18. Are you supportive of a check off program for solar energy as included in the
discussion draft? Would ASP be a participant?
A18. My understanding is the term check-off program relates to a program for
solar education and promotion that would apply to manufacturers and importers of
solar products. Whether APS would be a subject to such a check-off program will
depend on a variety of factors, therefore we would seek clarification of how the program could apply to a utility that could be working with solar products.
Q19. You mention the use of federal land for locating large scale CSP. What environmental, including siting concerns, do you see being faced by such a project?
2,500 contiguous acres of land is how big of an area? Can you give me a frame
of reference?
A19. In regards to the reference to 2,500 acres of land, consider that a square mile
section of land is 640 acres. The 2,500 acre suggestion would be about four square
miles, and could accommodate sufficient CSP facilities for the generation of approximately 500 MW of power. The factors that would have to be considered as part of
a site selection would be an Environmental Impact Statement, consideration of impacts on adjoining property uses, the available natural resources, zoning restrictions, taxes, etc.
Q20. Youve testified that CSP is the most cost effective solar technology and the
one that has the greatest potential to compete economically with conventional
generation. What are the relative costs between CSP and conventional generation? Could you elaborate on the figures you are using? Follow upYou have
testified in favor of a long-term extension of the 30 percent Investment tax credit (ITC). How long is long-term in your mind? And as youve said the potential for CSP to be competitive is so great, would it be so without the ITC in
place.
A20. Projects with commercially demonstrated CSP technologies are being offered
at less than twice the cost of conventional generation, sometimes significantly less,
but not quite competitive with conventional generation. These current project costs
are dependent on the 30 percent ITC, currently available to third-party owners. The
ITC reduces the cost sufficiently to make large scale CSP attractive to many utilities. If the ITC is not extended, we believe large scale CSP plants will be simply
too expensive and will not be constructed in the foreseeable future. Large scale CSP
plants take a minimum of three to five years to site, permit and construct. Consequently, the ITC should be extended for a minimum of five years, but ten years
would be preferable. We believe that ten years would be sufficient to generate numerous projects resulting in greatly reduced costs and a sustainable industry, independent of tax credits.
Q21. Would you favor extending the 30 percent ITC to public utilities? If it were to
be extended to these entities, would it make sense to place greater costs for research, training, land use and environmental concerns and the overall promotion of solar power on these public utilities?
A21. Generally, we favor the use of a meaningful ITC program as an incentive to
public utilities for the investment in renewable energy facilities such as CSP. However, an ITC has to be carefully weighed by an organization contemplating using
the ITC to see if its operations qualify, and whether the conditions on the ITC can
be met.
Q22. Mr. Hayden, you mention in your testimony that one of the main issues with
solar and wind energy is their intermittency. You suggest that we need more
R&D into the area of storage. Are the storage issues different between wind and
solar energy? Should we focus our energies on storage for stationary applications generally so that we could use the research for more than just solar technologies? Without adequate storage technology, how much growth can reasonably be expected in the solar energy market?
A22. Wind and solar energy definitely have different storage issues in terms of
availability and compatibility with current technologies. Wind energy technologies
and the various kinds of solar energy technologies would integrate differently with
the known available storage technologies, such as thermal, compressed air, pumped
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hydro, and batteries. For example, any source of electric energy could be used to
drive the compressor of a compressed air storage system, or to pump water for a
hydro-storage system, which stores the energy for later use. However, since the CSP
systems use thermal processes, they have a unique opportunity to use thermal storage more directly by storing solar heat before it is used to make electricity.
In summary, a broad support of stationary storage solutions in conjunction with
the development of CSP resources is a good idea, and thermal storage technology
is particularly well associated with current CSP plans. Without some means of addressing the availability of intermittent renewable energy sources, and providing incentives such as ITC and rate recovery, public utilities like APS will continue to find
it difficult to expand solar energy in its energy mix. APS regards all of these issues
as important to the further development of renewable energy resources and without
some changes in these areas, electric utilities will continue to primarily rely upon
traditional energy resources to meet their customer needs and protect existing infrastructure.
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ANSWERS
TO
Responses by Rhone Resch, President, Solar Energy Industries Association

The Solar Energy Industries Association thanks the Subcommittee for the opportunity to testify and to provide written responses to questions asked by the Committee Ranking Member. On the questions pertaining to workforce training, we
would defer to those expert witnesses who appeared before the Subcommittee to testify specifically on the workforce provisions in the discussion draft. Should you have
additional questions either relating to or independent of the responses below, please
do not hesitate to contact our offices at your convenience.
A1. SEIA reviewed the discussion draft prior to the hearing and has since had the
opportunity to review the provisions that were passed out of the Committee. Based
on our reading of the draft, the primary composition of the Board, and the direction
it is to provide, will come from industry. The participation of the Secretary of Energy on the Board seems appropriate, given the large role the DOE plays in the development of solar technologies, but it seems clear that the solar industry will (appropriately) remain the lead agent in disseminating information about solar products.
energy resource?
A2. Solar power, particularly in the distribution generation model, requires increased consumer awareness in order to achieve greater deployment. As we have
stated in written testimony to the Committee,
Though growing exponentially and constantly innovating, the U.S. solar industry is still in a nascent period. . .solar [photovoltaics] provides less than 1/30th
of one percent of the current U.S. electricity supply. Furthermore, PV is primarily a distributed generation technology that is installed on the rooftops of
homes and businesses throughout the U.S.a paradigm shift from the traditional model of centralized electricity generation. Most solar installation companies are small businesses, typically employing no more than a few dozen people,
and lacking the budget to reach a broad swath of consumers.
Thus, even as consumers embrace the idea of solar power, they are usually not
fully aware of its capabilities and they have misconceptions about how a solar
energy system works in a home. Market reports demonstrate a lack of consumer
understanding that solar electricity operates just like regular electricity and is
the same kind of electricity that a local utility company provides. 29 percent of
respondents to the May 2007 Roper survey were not aware that solar energy
can power common electric devices like computers or appliances. A number of
common myths persist about modern solar technology, such as the belief that
solar will not work in places outside of the Sunbelt or that solar devices require
more energy to manufacture than they produce in their lifetime, and these
myths often inhibit consumer consideration of solar as a viable energy source.
Furthermore, consumers lack information on how to find solar companies or
what solar products might be available. On a daily basis, the most common
phone calls to SEIA come from consumers who ask, Where can I find solar for
my home? The industry has taken a number of steps to centralize this type
of information, including the development of a national solar installer directory,
Findsolar.com. Individually, several companies have undertaken consumer
awareness campaigns that focus on basic technology education. Yet these efforts
clearly do not equate to the potential reach of a national consumer awareness
campaign.
Therefore, we believe that a national campaign promoting solar energy would significantly increase solars market growth.
their books and records to Members of the Board for inspection? The language
of the bill provides for criminal penalties for release of information obtained
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under the authority of the Act to any agency or officer of the United States for
any purpose other than implementation of this Act. What information do you
believe this language is seeking to protect? Do you agree criminal penalties are
necessary?
A3. All corporations have confidential business information that must be safeguarded in order to encourage companies to do business in the U.S. The relevant
provisions of this discussion draft are designed to facilitate the collection of market
data for purposes of levying assessments on producers, while safeguarding data
from dilatory or improper use. We perceive that this approach borrows largely from
the legislation used to create other industry check-off programs and would welcome
a continuing dialogue on how best to achieve effective reporting and compliance.
A4. SETA would be open to a referendum prior to the creation of the Board and
Committee. Furthermore, it is our understanding that the industry would have the
power to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the program, with a focus on its
economic benefits to industry members. This is appropriate given that then solar
check-off program is funded by a tax that is established by the industry, with the
blessing of members of the industry, and for the benefit of the industry as well as
the general public.
A5. In studying existing check-off programs, it appears common that enforcement
powers are granted to eliminate the problem of free riders, or nonpaying companies that might otherwise benefit economically from programs that others have
funded. Without enforcement provisions, programs would be less likely to ensure
that all companies participate.
A6. Most likely, any such investigations would be pursuant to issues of compliance
with the assessment process.
A7. SETA is a 501(c)(6) non-profit association that works to make solar power a
mainstream and significant component of the U.S. energy supply. As the discussion
draft currently provides, SETA would be able to serve on the promotion board and
play a role in designing and implementing a national consumer awareness campaign. In doing so, SEIA would address one of its core functions: to educate consumers on the benefits of solar technologies.
A8. Globally, the solar photovoltaic industry manufactured 2.2 Gigawatts of product
in 2006. The U.S., with seven percent market share, manufactured PV products
worth slightly more than $1 billion, with a net export of 10 percent of product.
Q9. Where does each of you see solar power as a part of the Nations energy mix by
2015 by percentage if this bill is enacted?
A9. As stated in SEIAs testimony, a check-off program will only succeed if appropriate incentives are in place, including an eight-year extension of the federal investment tax credits (ITC). Over the past decade, due to a lack of progressive national policy, the U.S. has lost global leadership in the race to attract solar energy
manufacturing, installation, and jobs. Long-term demand-side incentive policies in
Japan and Europe have spurred the formation of hundreds of new companies and
tens of thousands of new solar industry jobs in those countries; Germany, with the
solar resources of Anchorage, AK, installs eight times more PV each year than the
entire U.S. With appropriately designed incentive policies and increased consumer
awareness, we anticipate that solar power could provide 1015 percent of new incremental generating capacity annually in the U.S. by 2015.
Q10. I note that, as indicated in Section 2(7), the program is generally intended to
improve the competitive position. . .of solar energy products in the market-
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place. Because the program includes importers, apparently this means promoting all solar products (including German) against other technologies. Does
this matter to American producers?
A10. We anticipate that U.S. companies would, by far and away, benefit the most
from a strong demand signal in the U.S. market. One of the realities of solar commerce is that companies generally prefer to manufacture high-tech products close
to where the markets are, rather than ship them overseas and go through an extensive distribution system. In Germany, a national feed-in tariff incentive program for
solar PV has helped to industrialize some of that countrys most economically depressed regions. In the U.S., the states with the best-designed and long-term incentive programs have attracted the most development. Thus, in the current race for
global solar energy leadership, increasing consumers awareness and demand for
solar is one of the optimal methods for growing the U.S. industry.
Q11. Has the SEIA tried to do a voluntary check-off program?
A11. SEIA has not tried to implement a voluntary check-off program. In formulating our testimony on the discussion draft, we looked at other industries that had
implemented check-off programs. Historical examination shows that industries have
indeed organized voluntary check-offs, but they account for only a small share of all
funding for generic efforts. It seems likely that the establishment of legislative authority helps ensure the efficacy of check-off programs. This authority facilitates the
practicalities of dealing in interstate commerce and, as mentioned above, helps to
eliminate the problem of free riders, or nonpaying companies that might otherwise
benefit economically from programs that others have funded.
Q12. In your testimony, you talk mostly about distributed generation technologies of
solar energy. Do you see more of a potential for solar energy on this smaller
scale or as a large solar power plant?
A12. We believe that there is a vital role both for distributed solar generation and
for concentrating solar power (CSP) in the U.S. energy portfolio. Both PV and CSP
provide high-value electricity during peak demand hours, from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.
on hot, sunny days, thus helping to conserve the use of valuable natural gas. The
Western Governors Association Solar Task Force recently identified 200 GW of
prime potential sites for CSP in the Southwest, including several sites in Texas.
Furthermore, a study by Navigant Consulting found that eligible rooftop space in
the U.S. could provide 700 GW of PV. We encourage the greater use of CSP and
PV alike.
Q13. How many members does the SEIA have? How many member organizations I
companies would benefit from additional funding for research? How many
member organizations/companies would not?
A13. SEIA represents over 550 companies involved in the U.S. solar energy industry. Through our weekly newsletters and alerts, we actively encourage our members
to participate in collaborative R&D efforts with the Department of Energy under the
Presidents Solar America Initiative, announced by the White House in the 2006
State of the Union and first funded in FY 2007. The DOE Solar Energy Technologies Program has, at the time of this writing, announced two rounds of funding
awards. The recipients are consortia of industry (usually several companies per
award), national laboratories, universities, and non-profits. While it would be imprecise to guess how many companies would benefit from future research funding, we
anticipate that such funding would continue to be directed towards collaborative research teams incorporating companies from throughout the solar value chain.
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ANSWERS
TO
Responses by Jane M. Weissman, Executive Director, Interstate Renewable Energy

Council; Vice Chair, North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners
Q1a. Are you familiar with the Institute for Sustainable Power?
A1a. Yes.
The Institute for Sustainable Powers (ISP) accreditation and certification programs began 1996. International renewable energy, education, training, and accreditation experts worked to create ISPQ Standard #01021, which provides the guidelines and sets the bar for the accreditation of training programs and the certification
of trainers in the renewable energy field. The objectives of the Standard are:
to provide training programs worldwide with a harmonized training contentand delivery-guide for the knowledge and skills competencies for renewable
energy workforces;
to increase the confidence level that industry, employers, consumers, financiers, and governments can have in the participating training programs
and trainers by providing a globally accepted process of evaluation and surveillance (audit and periodic re-evaluation) of training programs and trainers,
and periodic re-evaluation of the standards; and
to encourage safety and the training of safe practices within the industry.
In 2005, ISP decentralized operations and created licensees for operations in the
United States, the UK and the Asia-Pacific area.
As of July 2005, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) is the North
American Licensee for the Institute for Sustainable Powers Quality (ISPQ) International Standard #01021 for Renewable Energy Training Accreditation and Instructor Certification programs. IREC is responsible for the full accreditation and
certification cycle including processing applications, assigning registered auditors,
awarding the credential, and maintaining all records of applicants, candidates and
certificants.
IREC awards formal recognition for five (5) ISPQ designations:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Accreditation for Training Programs

Accreditation for Continuing Education Providers
Certification for Independent Master Trainers
Certification for Affiliated Master Trainers
Certification for Instructors
Using the ISPQ International Standard #01021 as a guide, with an approved Task
Analysis as the content standard, IRECs ISPQ-Registered Auditors evaluate candidates for accreditation and certification through a desk and/or on-site audit. The
Auditors prepare the results of their evaluation and report to the IREC ISPQ Award
Committee which is responsible for the final decision on training accreditation and
trainer certification.
Two attached documents demonstrate the rigor and depth of the ISPQ process:
Standard #01021 and the Candidate Handbook. For further information, please visit
www.isaausa org.
Q1b. Do you feel comfortable having them run a certification program?
A1b. Yes. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council has been working for over two
decades as a non-profit organization committed to moving renewable energy resources into the marketplace. IREC emphasizes education and outreach, stakeholder
coordination, technical assistance, workforce development, the adoption and implementation of uniform guidelines and standards, and consumer protection. IREC is
known for its ability to identify critical issues, build networks, and develop and disseminate information tools that make the work of solar energy stakeholders more
effective. The Council has a proven track record for producing material and products
with the highest professional standards, meeting deadlines and managing its operations efficiently and effectively. (www.irecusa.org)
IRECs Accreditation and Certification Programs receive counsel and oversight
from a national, 10-person advisory board which includes trainers, industry, and
credentialing and education experts.
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Q1c. What type of fee would you envision would be required for them to certify
workforce training programs?
A1c. To date, below is the current fee application and maintenance fee structure.
The fees are purposely kept low. In this early stage of operation, the fee structure
does not support the full management and administration of the ISPQ process.

A2. IRECs goal is a simple oneto guarantee quality training for the solar energy
practitioner. The ISPQ process is a rigorous one and there has been considerable
resources spent to make this credentialing process fair, based on industry-developed
standards, and provide non bias, third-party assessment of training programs. All
documents and procedures have received subject-matter expert and legal review. We
would like to see this legislation encourage the ISPQ assessment process but our
goal is to make sure that there is assessable, quality training available for solar energy installers.
A3. When possible, IREC encourages cost sharing especially for states with System
Benefit Funds. However, we do not think that states without these funding resources should be penalized. We recommend that cost sharing is encouraged but not
required.
A4. We have not had any direct conversations with the unions in regard to this bill.
However, the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (NJATC) supports ISPQ goals and its mission, and intends to facilitate voluntary JATC participation in the ISPQ framework. NJATC is presently seeking Accredited Training
Program status under ISPQ for Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems. The scope of this
accreditation will cover the new NJATC Solar PV System curriculum, its ITC facilities in Alcoa, TN, NJATC instructors, its program administrative policies and
courses offered by NJATC. We would be happy to provide contact information to the
NJATC.
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ANSWERS
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Responses by Joseph T. Sarubbi, Professor/Department Chair, Building Systems

Technology Department, Hudson Valley Community College
Q1a. Are You familiar with the Institute for Sustainable Power?
A1a. Yes.
Q1b. Do you feel comfortable having them run a certification program?
A1b. Yes. The Institute for Sustainable Power has worked hard to ensure that companies, installers, and training institutions meet rigorous standards that will make
certain the type of reliability needed for positive industry growth and consumer confidence. I have intimate knowledge of ISPs standards and believe they do well to
manage quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC).
Q1c. What type of fee would you envision would be required for them to certify
workforce training programs?
A1c. An exact figure is difficult for me to ascertain. To ensure that all institutions
applying for accreditation meet ISP standards a site visit to the institution seeking
accreditation by the ISP evaluation team is essential. In Hudson Valley Community
Colleges situation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provided the resources to allow the College to position itself for Accreditation.
National sponsorship of ISP could reduce the costs associated with institutional accreditation and help these institutions move swiftly, yet responsibly, towards accreditation. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) developed a fee structure
for evaluation of solar programs and institutions seeking accreditation, and Hudson
Valley Community College is working within these fee guidelines. I am confident
in IRECs ability to manage the costs associated with accreditation and certification.
Q2a. Have you reviewed the legislation proposed here today?
A2a. Yes.
Q2b. Do you think it makes sense to create two additional layers of bureaucracy for
the Secretary of Energy to promote solar power or do you feel it would be easier
to just give DOE a grant to promote solar power? Please explain.
A2b. The Solar Energy Industries Research and Promotion Board, as well as the
Solar Energy Industries Research and Promotion Operating Committee make sense
in that they will be strong advocates for the advancement of the solar industry. The
members of the Board, as well as the Committee, will be stakeholders in the solar
industry and will provide a platform for sound solar energy initiatives. While an argument could certainly be made that we are creating more levels of bureaucracy,
in this case, I believe the layers are valid; especially knowing that (1) no Board and
Committee members will receive compensation for their service, and (2) most, if not
all, Board and/or Committee members will be utilizing the resources, staffs, and facilities of existing organizations.
Q3. Do you believe solar power needs to be promoted in order to be successful as an
energy resource?
A3. Yes. There is a certain level of complacency that exists in our society and Ive
learned throughout the years that an effectively promoted initiative has positive
outcomes. There are many examples to point to, some of which were identified during the hearing. I truly believe that an educated public is our strongest asset and
right now I dont believe that the Nation yet fully understands the value of investing in solar power, especially the younger generation. The same could be said for
other renewable energy resources.
A4. I dont have the expertise to adequately answer this question.
Q5. The language of this bill provides for criminal penalties for release of information obtained under the authority of the Act to any agency or officer of the
United States for any purpose other than the implementation of this act. What
information do you believe this language is seeking to protect? Do you agree
criminal penalties are necessary?
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A5. Again, I believe I dont have the expertise to adequately answer this question.
Q7. What enforcement by the Secretary of Energy do you envision that might warrant civil penalty for noncompliance under section 10 of this bill? Is this section
necessary?
Q8. What type of investigation do you believe it would necessary for the Secretary
of Energy to conduct under section 11 of this bill?
Q9. How will your organization benefit from this bill?
A9. Hudson Valley Community College received a grant from the New York State
Energy Research and Development Authority to establish our solar program. As a
leader in solar training Hudson Valley Community College will be able to seek additional resources to develop new solar training programs that are responsive to the
industry, as well as expand our existing program offerings. As the solar industry
grows, Hudson Valley Community College would seek additional funding for solar
programmatic initiatives which include resources for additional faculty, curriculum
development, and enhanced training facilities to react to industry trends.
A11. This bill will go a long way towards making the United States a national player in the solar power generation industry, and inform the world that we are serious
about renewable energy.
Q12. What is your view on cost sharing of the training programs between the states
Q13. Are the unions opposed to this training bill?
A13. Quite the contrary. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, for
example, is very invested in training their journeyman in solar installation technology. They see economic growth and job creation with this bill. One only has to
look at New York Citys Million solar roofs initiative to see the impact on job creation as a valid example.
Q14. Is the draft discussion draft duplicative of any current programs? If so which
programs?
A14. A handful of states, such as California, New Jersey, and New York, have solar
training initiatives that have proven track records, but the United States needs a
national program to ensure the type of growth that it aspires to reach by 2015. A
national program will ensure other states will have the opportunity to enhance job
creation in the solar industry.
Q15. Mr. Sarubbi, you have demonstrated that the photovoltaic program at your
community college is in high demand and has been able to seek out several
business partners. Does the Federal Government need to be involved to spur
further collaborations?
A15. Absolutely! Our success was driven by a collaborative effort between a State
government agency, as well as national organizations such as IREC, with the resources and guidelines to establish an effective solar training program, and an educational institution with the vision to see the value of this training. The government
resources gave the college the confidence to move forward, which made attracting
support from local solar companies viable. Our growth is still contingent on procuring resources that would allow the College to expand its offerings and further
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develop partnerships. Its all about confidence. Having the DOE as a sponsor of
solar training programs will spur confidence and ensure industry growth.
Q16. As your program has grown, have you had to advertise your services?
A16. Interestingly, the College has gained significantly in free advertisement as
news agencies continue to report on the success of our solar training programs, further spurring interest in the community. The press has helped us get the word
out and the College has been the beneficiary of this exposure. The College also
maintains a website link dedicated to solar training which continues to garner attention from those seeking information about gaining solar training.
Q17. What weve heard today from a number of experts that explain that solar technologies are rapidly changing and evolving. Do you offer a continuing education program to meet these changing demands?
A17. Absolutely! Hudson Valley Community College has a Workforce Development
Institute that seeks to continuously provide training to meet the needs of industry
and solar training is no different. For example, as state and local building and electrical codes change to adapt to the changing solar technology, the College provides
workshops for code inspectors to keep them abreast of these latest technological advances. The College is currently developing advanced solar training courses that
will be offered through Workforce Development to keep Certified Installers fluid.
Q18. Has the Department of Energy assisted you in anyway? If so, how?
A18. At this stage I am not aware of any direct assistance from the Department
of Energy.
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ANSWERS
TO
Responses by Daniel E. Arvizu, Director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory,

U.S. Department of Energy
Q1. Are you familiar with the Institute of Sustainable Power? Do you feel comfortable having them run a certification program? What type of a fee would you
envision would be required for them to certify workforce training programs?
A1. I am familiar with the Institute for Sustainable Power which coordinates, develops, and maintains international standards for the evaluation and qualification of
renewable energy, energy efficiency and distributed generation training providers.
ISP has a solid reputation for the quality of the work it does. I am not in a position
to comment on an appropriate fee for certifying workforce training programs.
I would suggest, however, that the Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Program
be consulted on options for improving training and certification of solar energy professionals. As part of its Solar America Initiative, the DOE has created a program
to improve and expand solar installer training in cooperation with the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP). The DOEs efforts in this
area may be of interest to the Committee.
A2. I will defer to DOE on this question.
energy resource?
A3. As Americans begin to enjoy more options as to where they get their power and
fuel, I believe they need clear, credible and consistent information about all energy
sources to help them make informed decisions about which options to choose.
Q5. The language of the bill provides for criminal penalties for release of information obtained under the authority of the Act to any agency or officer of the
United States for any purpose other than implementation of this Act. What information do you believe this language is seeking to protect? Do you agree criminal penalties are necessary?
A9. NREL will not directly benefit from this legislation.
A10. I will defer this question to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
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A11. This bill addresses, and in some cases expands on, a number of important
areas of solar energy research, development and demonstration currently sponsored
by the DOE. It identifies critical research on thermal storage for concentrating solar
power technologies that will make those technologies significantly more valuable to
utilities interested in integrating them within their system. It also calls for continuing studies of that integration with a particular focus on water issues critical
items for successful market penetration of CSP.
I would suggest that the DOE be consulted regarding the additional demonstration programs the bill mandates for daylighting, solar air conditioning, and
photovoltaics. The DOE is currently expanding its efforts on demonstration and deployment of distributed solar and building efficiency technologies, and I believe that
commercialization of these technologies will occur most rapidly if it is pursued within the context of the broader requirements and opportunities in the buildings sector.
Together, these various efforts will reinforce the DOE programs to move solar energy into position to make a significant contribution to the U.S. energy picture by
2015. The amount of solar power in our future energy mix will depend on a number
of factors, but supporting legislation can help accelerate the amount we have in
2015.
A13. NREL is not qualified to answer this question.
Q14. Is the Draft discussion draft duplicative of any current programs? If so which
programs?
A14. I will defer to DOE on the first part of the question dealing with duplication
of current programs. As to metrics for evaluating the success of training and other
solar programs, the major metric for the Solar Program is the levelized cost of electricity. The attached slide presents the goal of the solar program to have competitive
prices of electricity in the three market sectors (residential, commercial, and utility)
by 2015. A secondary goal is to have about 4 gigawatts of installed solar power by
2015.
Q15. In your testimony you state that the Solar Energy Program goal is to reduce
the cost of solar photovoltaic technologies so that they become cost competitive
with other sources of electricity in all major U.S. markets by 2015. Are you
on track to reach this goal? What major hurdles would prevent you from doing
so?
A15. The current DOE Solar Program in photovoltaics is designed to make solar
electricity cost competitive in the three major marketsresidential, commercial, and
utilityby 2015 through the Presidents Solar American Initiative. This initiative
builds on the experience with bringing down the costs of solar electricity from successful programs in Japan and Europe. The program is currently on track to meet
these 2015 targets for the U.S. consumer. Technology investments and consistent
policies are both important, but to ensure success, to increase the technical leadership of the U.S. in this expanding high-technology business, and to build a solid
technical workforce in the U.S. economy, the investment in R&D both in the shortand long-term, must be strong, consistent and sustainable.
Q16. You mention that CSP power plants can be quickly constructed. How quickly
and how much do they cost to build? Are there any NIMBY issues involved
with their siting and construction?
A16. SolarGenix recently completed construction of a 64 MW plant near Las Vegas,
Nevada. Construction of the 64 MW plant took approximately one year to complete.
This matches previous experience in the late 80slearly 90s where nine CSP plants
were built in the Mojave Desert over a period of six years.
It is hard to predict NIMBY issues. CSP plants tend to be located in desert regions not ideal for residential development. However, as is the case in California,
concerns have risen over the development of CSP on sensitive habitats (e.g., Desert
Tortoise). As with other forms of conventional or renewable generation, construction
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of new transmission or upgrades of existing transmission can raise regional concerns.
Q17. Are there any CSP plants with thermal storage in operation today? Are any hybrid CSP/natural gas plants in operation? If not, when can we expect to see
them running?
A17. All of the existing nine parabolic trough plants operating in the Mojave Desert
are hybridized with natural gas, therefore supplying 100 percent of their rated capacity during peak utility periods. Two plants under construction in Spain (anticipated to be operational in 2008 and 2009) will use 67 hours of two-tank indirect
molten salt storage. However storage costs need to be reduced before such plants
would be considered economically competitive.
Q18. How does this legislation fit within the Administrations energy initiatives? I
know that the Administration announced $168 million to help reduce the cost
of solar energy.
Q19. Has the Administration done a cost estimate of the bill? Page 20 calls for an
unlimited authorization. What is your estimate?
Q20. Solar power has had problems with environmental concerns with toxic like cadmium used in some photovoltaic cells. Does CSP use cells that contain these
kinds of materials that might cause environmental concerns? Are there any environmental concerns as to land use, etc.?
A20. Concentrating Solar Power systems use thermal energy to drive an energy
conversion device (steam/gas turbine or Stirling engine) rather than solar cells. Heat
transfer fluids used by some systems can consist of synthetic oils or molten salts
can both be considered hazardous but have been widely used and permitted in commercial or demonstration plants in California. Land use can be a concern where
plants are being considered near sensitive habitat areas (e.g., the Desert Tortoise
in Californias Mojave Desert). Parabolic trough and power tower plants require
water for cooling (as with conventional generation) although dry cooling designs
have been studied and are being considered for future plants.
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Appendix 2:
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
FOR THE
RECORD
(91)
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House Hearing, 110TH Congress - Research, Education and Training Programs To Facilitate Adoption of Solar Energy Technologies

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House Hearing, 110TH Congress - Research, Education and Training Programs To Facilitate Adoption of Solar Energy Technologies

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RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND TRAINING

PROGRAMS TO FACILITATE ADOPTION

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND

JUNE 19, 2007

Serial No. 11041

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

HON. NICK LAMPSON, Texas, Chairman

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

Witness List .............................................................................................................

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

More on Solar Check-off Program .......................................................................

Appendix 1: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions

Appendix 2: Additional Material for the Record

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAMS TO FACILITATE ADOPTION OF

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Research, Education and Training

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

REPRESENTATIVE GABRIELLE GIFFORDS

I want to thank Chairman Gordon, Ranking Member Hall, Chairman Lampson,

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

Ms. GIFFORDS. The Chair now recognizes the Ranking Member

REPRESENTATIVE BOB INGLIS

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Inglis.

CHAIRMAN NICK LAMPSON

I am very pleased to be here this morning to discuss the legislation proposed by

[The prepared statement of Mr. Costello follows:]

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY F. COSTELLO

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

Mr. HAYDEN. Madam Chairman and Members of the Committee,

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, it is a pleasure to provide testimony

16:06 Dec 20, 2007

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Ms. GIFFORDS. Thank you, Mr. Hayden.

Mr. RESCH. Thank you, Chairman Lampson, Congresswoman

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